Candidates:
Chair-elect: Carl Menning, Vlad Nikolakis
Treasurer: Haiying Chen, Parag Shah
Directors: Yaritza Lopez, Chuck Coe
Biographical sketches of the candidates
Chair-elect
Carl Menning is currently a Research Engineer at DuPont at the Corporate Research center in Wilmington, DE, where he is working on catalyst development for renewably-sourced materials. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2003. Following a short period in industry, he received his Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware under the guidance of Jingguang Chen in 2009 with a focus on bimetallic catalysts for PEM fuel cells. He has industrial experience in a variety of fields including consumer foods, petroleum-based products, inorganic pigments and renewably-sourced materials. Carl is currently the Program Chair of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia and was the Arrangements Chair from 2006 to 2008.
Dr. Vladimiros Nikolakis (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2001) joined the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation at University of Delaware as a Senior Research Associate in 2011. Before that he was a Principal Researcher at the Institute of Chemical Engineering & High Temperature Chemical Processes (FORTH/ICE-HT), Greece. His current studies are focused in the field of heterogeneous catalysis for the conversion of biomass feedstocks to platform chemicals or fuels. His research interests also include the fields of zeolite crystallization; zeolite membrane synthesis, evaluation and development of novel characterization techniques. He has published more than 30 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and he has more than 50 presentations in scientific conferences. He has served the professional community as a member of the organizing committee of several scientific conferences (once as a conference chair), and as reviewer of research articles or proposals.
Treasurer
Dr. Hai-Ying Chen is a Product Development Manager at Johnson Matthey Inc., Emission Control Technologies, in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He is responsible for developing advanced catalysts for exhaust emission control. Hai-Ying Chen received his Ph. D. degree in Chemistry from Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He has been a member of the Philadelphia Catalysis Club since 2000, and served the club as Sectary, Program Chair, Director, and Chair.
Parag Shah is a Research Chemist at PQ Corporation and is involved in developing improved silica-based supports, new polyolefin catalysts and process/product development for emerging catalyst technologies. In 2008 he received his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from University of Pennsylvania under the guidance of Prof. Raymond J. Gorte. His thesis work focused on investigating the thermodynamic properties of metal-oxide catalysts. Parag earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Bombay (India), and subsequently did a Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), with emphasis on Process Development and Design. He has been a member of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia since 2004, and served as Secretary since 2010–2011 season.
Directors
Yaritza M. López is currently a Senior Application Engineer at Johnson Matthey in the Heavy Duty Diesel department in Audubon, PA. She is working on the technical applications of new catalysts for emission control for heavy duty diesel engines. She joined JM in September 2010, after finishing her Post-Doc at the University of South Carolina (USC), where she focused her research of NOx reduction catalysts for gasoline emissions. She obtained her PhD degree from USC in 2009, her dissertation was focused on the synthesis, characterization and kinetic evaluation of dendrimer-derived monometallic and bimetallic catalysts for hydrogenation and NOx reduction reactions. Yaritza was member of the Southeast Catalysis Society and she is an active member of the North American Catalysis Society (2007 – present). She has been part of several professional and graduate student committees. She was co-chair on fundamentals of catalysis session in AIChE and she participated as judge of AIChE undergraduate student poster (2010). She was also vice-president of the chemical engineer graduate organization at USC (2008–2009) and part of the graduate student recruiting committee at USC from 2005 to 2009.
Chuck Coe is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of Villanova University. After obtaining his PhD in inorganic chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University, Chuck joined the Chemical Additives division of Air Products and Chemicals Early in Chuck’s career he transferred to the corporate research group at the company headquarters where he developed an extensive expertise in molecular sieve science. Before retiring from Air Products, Chuck was named a strategic technologist for the Corporation and provided internal consultation on a broad range of materials characterization issues involving catalysts and adsorbents. Chuck has been an active member of the Philadelphia and NY Catalysis Clubs for over thirty years. Earlier in his career he served as an officer in the Philadelphia Catalysis Club. He received the 2010 Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award. Since retiring, Chuck has joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at Villanova as a Visiting Assistant Professor and is sharing his knowledge with the next generation of engineers and scientists.