news | Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory (AAQRL) | University of Miami

2018

• Dec: Congratulations to the winners NASA Air and Space Prize: Jiaxi Fang & Tandeep Chadha from Applied Particle Technology and Pratim Biswas & Jiayu Li from Washington University in St. Louis’s Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory.
• Congratulations Yao Nie, Begum Karakocak, Shalinee Kavadiya, Kelsey Haddad, Ahmed Abokifa on successfully defending your PhD thesis.
• May, Congrats to AAQRL lab member Shalinee Kavadiya for winning the Association of Women Faculty Award.
• March, Congrats to AAQRL lab member Ahmed Abokifa for winning the Innovyze Excellence in Computational Hydraulics/Hydrology Award for 2018 from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.
• February, AAQRL-3D Graphene-Based Nanocomposite wins LEAP Inventor Challenge Awards.

2017

• September, AAQRL research on nano-shield to fight fungal disease in maize highlighted in Nature Asia
• September, AAQRL researchers featured in Forbes article entitled, “From Cancer to Crops: Engineering Small Solutions For the World’s Big Problems“.
• September, AAQRL-smart fertilizer technology wins LEAP Inventor Challenge Award and selected as finalist for IChemE-Biotechnology Award 2017 for research on “Smart fertilizer to feed the globe.”
• August, AAQRL engineers show how to best reduce pollution exposure during commutes.
• July, CASE researchers trek the globe to tackle the challenging problem of pollution both at home and abroad.
• July, Research work performed by AAQRL members on new drug delivery methods to the brain is featured by the Higher Education Channel –TV Network.
• May, Congrats to AAQRL alumni Yi Jiang for winning the 2017 CH2M/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award!
• May, Congrats to AAQRL lab members Ahmed Abokifa and Kelsey Haddad for winning second place in the BATtle of the Attack Detection ALgorithms at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2017.
• May, Congrats to AAQRL lab member Ahmed Abokifa for winning Graduate Student Research Award at EECE department.
• May, AAQRL lab member Ramesh Raliya is featured on NPR for research on a nasal spray that could deliver nanoparticles directly to the brain for cancer treatment.
• May, AAQRL lab members Shalinee Kavadiya and Su Huang find a new technique to make perovskite solar cells using electrospray.
• January, Research Scientist Dr. Ramesh Raliya won the LEAP Inventor Challenge Award for the development of smart fertilizer technology.

2016

• December, Congratulations to Sukrant Dhawan on joining AAQRL!
• November, Prof. Pratim Biswas received Harry J White Award from the International Society for Electrostatic Precipitation for his notable contribution in the field of electrostatic precipitation technology.
• July, Congratulations to Corban Swain (First Place Winner) and Caroline Avery (Second Place Winner) in the Poster Competition for the Wustl UG Research Interns!
• July, A novel hybrid nanomaterial developed to transform water includes graphene oxide sheets synthesized by researchers in AAQRL.
• April, Nanoparticles synthesized by researchers in AAQRL offer a sustainable way to grow food crops.
• April, AAQRL members receive SEAS Awards: Ted Cohen (SS and IMF Marsden Senior Prize), Begum Karakocak (Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award), and Shalinee Kavadiya (Graduate Student Research Award). Congratulations!
• February, Congratulations to Begüm and Kelsey on successfully defending their proposal!
• January, Congratulations to Yi Jiang for winning the ACS Environmental Chemistry Division Award! Great work Yi!
• January, novel nanoparticles synthesized in AAQRL are shown to inhibit the growth of cancer tumors in vivo.

2015

• December, Congratulations to Shalinee, Yao, and Ahmed on successfully defending their proposal.
• December, Center for Multiple Myeloma Nanotherapy has been awarded $13.7 million from the National Cancer Institute.
• December, Biswas group research on the application of nano-sized nutrients to improve produce growth is featured by the National Science Foundation, USA.
• November, Welcome to new lab members Girish Sharma, Clatyon Kacica, and Kristen Mills.
• November, Nathan Reed and Kelsey Haddad placed second in the  Boeing Patent Challenge.  For this competition, Boeing Phantom Works Ventures and the Skandalaris Center at Washington University teamed up to mentor a patent commercialization challenge based on Boeing intellectual property.  Nathan and Kelsey’s group, Nano Syntech, uses a proprietary material system designed to continuously and autonomously charge wearable fitness devices.
• September, Dr. Biswas wins the Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This award recognizes an individual’s outstanding chemical engineering contribution and achievement in the preservation or improvement of the environment.
• June, Ramesh Raliya received the Gordon Research Conference Chair travel award to present at the conference entitled “Nanoscale Science & Engineering for Agriculture & Food Systems” at Bentley University in Waltham, MA.
• June, Applied Particle Technology, a startup company originating from technology developed in AAQRL, was one of 11 award-winners in the 2015 Arch Grants Global Startup Competition.
• May, Bharatkumar Suthar, Jiaxi Fang, He Jing, Tandeep Singh Chadha, and Yi Jiang were hooded at the Washington University in St. Louis Commencement.
• April, As part of a collaboration across research labs at Washington University in St. Louis and Korea University, members of the AAQRL lab helped to develop copper oxide nanowires as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. The results of the work were published Feb. 27 in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
• April, Nathan Reed joined IDEA Labs, a bioengineering design and entrepreneurship incubator as Washington University, as the Product Coordinator for NeuraLink. NeuraLink is an implantable wireless data link for chronic neural recording and stimulation with applications in spinal cord injury, prosthetic limbs and neural research.
• February, Miguel Vazquez Pufleau passed his proposal defense on Applications of aerosol technologies in the silicon industry.
• January, Prof. Biswas named Editor-In-Chief of Journal of Aerosol, Elsevier Publications. This premiere journal focuses on fundamental and applied aerosol research.
• January, Ahmed Abokifa travels to the USEPA in Cincinnati, OH to test drinking water quality simulation models developed at AAQRL. The models are focused on residential distribution network flow demands in a real-time framework. This work is in collaboration with the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW).

2014

• November, Dr. Biswas was featured on St. Louis Public Radio in a discussion about the conversion of landfill gas to useable gas
• November, AAQRL welcomes 3 new lab members (Nathan Reed, Jiayu Li, Zhichao Li)
• October, WUSTL hosts the 5th International Symposium on the Role of Research Universities in Addressing Global Challenges, where many AAQRL members played an active role in directing dialogue
• July, EECE department welcomes two new professors in the Aerosols Cluster (Dr. Rajan Chakrabarty and Dr. Elijah Thimsen)
• May, Congratulations to Dr. Vivek Shah who successfully defended his thesis entitled: Aerosol Techniques for Deposition and Characterization of Biological and Biomimetic Sensitizers for Solar Device
• January, Dr. Pratim Biswas and Dr. John Fortner featured in the Times of India after presenting on zero liquid discharge technologies for industry representatives, policy makers, consultants and regulators

2013

• New Device Traps Particulates, Kills Airborne Pathogens.
  Our paper entitled “Soft X-ray Enhanced Electrostatic Precipitation for Protection against Inhalable Allergens, Ultrafine Particles, and Microbial Infections” published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, has been featured in ASM Society and many other news sites:
• Science Daily, e! Science News, Phys.Org, EurekAlert
• Happy New Year 2013 to All!

2012

• Prof. Biswas was featured in Engineering Momentum – The Global Engineer (by Beth Miller).
• Prof. Biswas received 2012 Distinguished Faculty Award at the universitiy’s annual Founders Day celebration on Nov. 3.
• Our paper entitled “Size and Structure Matter: Enhanced CO₂ Photoreduction Efficiency by Size-Resolved Ultrafine Pt Nanoparticles on TiO₂ single Crystals” has been accepted by the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), and featured in JACS Spotlights: Making Something Useful from Emitted Greenhous Gases (by Christen Brownlee)
• American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) honored PhD student, Jiaxi Fang, with the Best Poster Award
• AAQRL Alumnus, Dr. Manoranjan Sahu won Best Doctoral Thesis from the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) in 2012.
• PhD student, Xiaofei Wang, received Dave Benferado Scholarship for air pollution control and waste minimization research from the A&WMA in 2012.

2011

• Our paper entitled “Rapid Synthesis of Nanostructured Cu-TiO₂-SiO₂ Composites for CO₂ Photoreduction by Evaporation Driven Self-Assembly” was featured in the Inside Front Cover of Catalysis Science & Technology, and selected as Hot Article: Splitting Carbon Dioxide with Light.
  More news: Interview: Cynthia Friend, co-Editor-in-Chief of Catalysis Science & Technology.
• Our paper entitled “Thermal Conduction Effects Impacting Morphology during Synthesis of Columnar Nanostructured TiO₂ Thin Films” has been featured on the Back Cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry.
• American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) honored PhD student, Tandeep S. Chadha, with the Best Poster Award
• Prof. Biswas became the new Lucy and Stanley Lopata Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
• IIT-Bombay honors Professor Pratim Biswas with Distinguished Service Award.

2010

• AAQRL Alumnus, Dr. Elijah Thimsen won first place awards from both AEESP and AWMA for Best Doctoral Thesis in 2010.
• American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) honored Vivek Shah, with the Best Poster Award
• Oriented Nanostructured Films for Solar Energy Harvesting
• Copenhagen and Different Ways of Looking at Carbon Dioxide EmissionsClick here for a report
• Novel BioHybrid Structures Assembled for first time for Solar Energy Applications
• Presentation to WUStL Alumni – Commencement 2010

  The Energy -Environment Nexus: Engineering Clean Energy for the 21st Century. Click Here