CMS · REU · Presidential Award
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CMS · REU · Presidential Award |
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NEWSLETTER MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR As we close out another year, not only do we stop to reflect on the past year, but also the 1990s, the 1900s, and the ending millennium. We in the Center of Membrane Sciences have many great things to reflect upon. We have many accomplishments, both as individuals and as a collaborative unit. This newsletter is an opportunity to recount some of these accomplishments since our last edition. First some history: In June of 1991 the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved the Center of Membrane Sciences as an official entity of UK in Research and Graduate Studies. Five faculty associates initially collaborated to form the center. There are now 23 faculty associates from 11 departments and seven colleges representing both the Lexington Campus and the Medical Center¾a truly multidisciplinary group committed to excellence in membrane research, education and service. This excellence is exemplified by the following accomplishments since 1996: faculty associates have obtained extramural funding totaling over $20.5 million; published over 400 papers; given over 400 presentations at national/international meetings and seminars; and trained nearly 140 Ph.D. and M.S. graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. These are clear indicators of the excellence of our faculty associates. When the center was formed, it was necessary to first learn to speak the language of both types of membranes. The willingness and cooperation of the faculty associates to be open to all kinds of membrane research made this possible. A multidisciplinary approach to biological and synthetic membrane research and investigations of the interface of the two, a hallmark of our center, has enabled us to develop a strong research and programmatic reputation. The Center of Membrane Sciences Colloquium has served as a central focus for faculty associates and their graduate students to help accomplish this goal. Our faculty associates are actively engaged in collaborative, multidisciplinary research and graduate training, obtaining joint federal grants, publishing jointly-authored articles in scientific journals, securing joint patents for membrane-based applications, and serving as joint mentors for graduate students. Examples of the center's multidisciplinary research are the federal grants we currently have to study all types of membranes, including biofunctional membranes¾entities in which biological molecules are attached to synthetic porous membranes to bring about catalysis, separation or analysis. The center has been active in technology transfer, organizing and hosting several international meetings on membranes, such as the International Conference on Biofunctional Membranes held in Lexington in April 1995. The center has been selected for the second time to organize and host the North American Membrane Society Annual Meeting in the year 2001. The first conference was in 1992. This is further evidence of the high regard in which the membrane scientific community holds the center. In addition, two books from the center have been published: Biological and Synthetic Membranes (Wiley/Liss, 1989) and Biofunctional Membranes (Plenum, 1996). In education, center faculty associates have trained nearly 250 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows since 1991. With the aid of continuous NSF funding, we have trained more than 100 undergraduates in membrane research, encouraging such students to pursue a graduate degree in a membrane-related area. Over half of these undergrads were women and minorities, groups that are underrepresented in science and engineering. In 2000, the center will move its administrative offices to Bowman Hall, rooms 255 and 256. This will coincide with the new area code for Lexington, so both our phone number and mailing address will change in the new year. As we look ahead, we will continue to build on the significant accomplishments of past years and the strength of the center, namely, the strong collaborative, multidisciplinary research by experts in biological and synthetic membranes to develop new understanding and applications of biological, synthetic, and biofunctional membranes. We anticipate the addition of new faculty associates and continued national funding for our research and programmatic efforts, and we hope to obtain federal recognition as a national resource for membrane studies. The center stands ready to work with industry and academic groups interested in learning how membrane science and technology can be used to solve specific problems. We welcome your support, insight, and comments to help us achieve these goals. D. Allan Butterfield, Ph.D. NEW FACULTY ASSOCIATES Dayong Gao, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Graduate Center for Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Gao came to UK in 1998 from Methodist Hospital of Indiana. Prior to that he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, and his master's and undergraduate degrees at the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei Anhu, China. His research focuses on NMR imaging and renal failure treatment employing synthetic membranes. Winston Ho, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Dr. Ho worked with Commodore Separation Technologies, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Xerox Corporation, Wilson Center for Technology, and Allied Chemical Corporation prior to coming to UK this past summer. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his undergraduate work was completed at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. He comes to UK with many publications and numerous patents. Both of these scientists have already made their presence widely known at UK, and we are glad to have them as part of the center. Their accomplishments and those of other center faculty associates bring recognition to UK from the international membrane community. CENTER FACULTY ASSOCIATES HONORS AND AWARDS Dibakar Bhattacharyya will serve as co-chair along with Dr. Butterfield of the 2001 North American Membrane Society Annual Meeting. Paul Bummer was named Outstanding Second Year Professor in the College of Pharmacy in 1999. D. Allan Butterfield was the recipient of UK's William B. Sturgill Award for Graduate Education in 1997. He received the Southern Chemist Award from the American Chemical Society, Memphis Section in 1997. In 1998 he was an honored recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, presented by President Clinton at the White House. Arthur Cammers-Goodwin received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award in 1997. Peter Crooks received the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Outstanding Manuscript Award in Analysis and Pharmaceutical Quality in 1999. Dr. Crooks has been named many times in Who's Who in the South and Southwest in Science and Engineering, Medicine and Healthcare, and American Inventors. He has 32 patents. Sylvia Daunert received the Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation in 1997 and the Lilly Award in Analytical Chemistry in both 1997 and 1998. Bernhard Hennig received the UK College of Human Environmental Sciences and Department of Nutrition and Food Science Outstanding Researcher Award in 1998. Brian Jackson currently holds a seat on the board of directors of the American Heart Association, Kentucky Affiliate. Douglas Kalika was named UK Outstanding Chemical Engineering Teacher in 1996-1997¾this is the third time he has received this honor. He was also given the 1996-1997 Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Teacher Award, UK College of Engineering. Mark Mattson received a University Research Professorship from Research and Graduate Studies in 1997 and the Grass Lectureship from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1999. CENTER FACILITIES State-of-the-art equipment for membrane research includes hollow-fiber spinning and continuous sheet casting facilities, high-field (600 MHz) NMR, ESR, fluorescence, and MS spectrometers, gamma camera, neutron sources, ATR-FTIR, TIRM, micropipette aspiration, cell adhesion measurements, fluorescence microscopes, computer-controlled HPLCs, pore-volume analyzers, computer-controlled fermenter, polymer dielectric relaxation and dynamics equipment. In addition, UK's shared-use facilities involving supercomputers, electron microscopy, materials characterization, and cell sorters are available to all center faculty associates.
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