Two Davidson School of Chemical Engineering faculty have been awarded research funding from the Purdue Trask Innovation Fund. Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor of Chemical Engineering, and You-Yeon Won, Professor of Chemical Engineering, were awarded funding to assist on their developments that are commercialized through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization. Wang received $25,000 for "New Technologies for Converting Polyolefin Plastic Waste into Pristine Polymers or Clean Fuels." Won received $20,000 for "Development of Radiation-Controlled Chemotherapeutic Release Formulations for Intratumoral Chemo-Radio Combination Therapy for Locally Advanced Tumors."

Spirrow Therapeutics (formerly Spiro Therapeutics), co-founded by Purdue University Chemical Engineering professor You-Yeon Won, and ChE graduates Davis Arick and Kyle Kim, has been selected as a finalist from a pool of 1,600 applicants to take part in MassChallenge, the Boston-based startup accelerator program. Spirrow Therapeutics is developing a novel treatment for a life-threatening lung condition known as acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS.

Dr. Rajamani Gounder, the Larry and Virginia Faith Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, is one of 84 scientists from across the United States to receive significant funding for research as part of the Department of Energy Office of Science's Early Career Research Program. Gounder was selected for his research proposal, Dynamic Multinuclear Active Sites Formed from Mobilized Single Atoms on Heterogeneous Supports for Selective Oxidation Catalysis.

Fundamental Purdue research on making batteries safer has been targeted by the U.S. Office of Naval Research for translation into prototypes of larger batteries used in technologies such as submarines and naval missile systems. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering's Dr. Vilas Pol is the lead P.I. of the prototype development process, which is supported by a $2M grant for three years. The research is a team effort across Purdue Chemical Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics and Mechanical Engineering, as well as two research centers in Indiana: the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division and the Battery Innovation Center.

A team of Purdue Chemical Engineering researchers has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to evaluate and improve the safety-related characteristics of potassium-ion batteries (KIBs). Dr. Vilas Pol, associate professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Arvind Varma, the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, will receive $346,000/3y starting in June 2018 for their proposal, “Mechanistic Elucidation of Thermal Runaway in Potassium-Ion Batteries.”