Seeking a greater role for particles

Seventeen researchers, including 14 from Lehigh, are giving presentations at a two-day workshop here titled “Particles for Emerging Needs: Directed Synthesis and Characterization toward Biomedical and Catalytic Applications.”

The workshop, held today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 9 and 10) in the Rauch Business Center, is sponsored by the university’s Emulsion Polymers Institute (EPI).

The EPI’s recently named director, H. Daniel Ou-Yang, said the event represents part of an effort to expand the institute’s longstanding research into latex particle synthesis. In addition to its traditional investigations, EPI is also conducting research to learn how to use particles in applications ranging from energy to the environment to biomedicine.

The workshop features two sessions on Synthesis, Characterization, and Control of Particles and additional sessions on Particles for Biomedical/Bioengineering Applications and on Catalysis, Energy, and the Environment.

The presentations for the sessions on Synthesis, Characterization, and Control of Particles are:

--Future Directions in Polymer Colloids by F. Joseph Schork, department chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Maryland

--A Surface Science View of Nanoparticles by Bruce E. Koel, vice provost for research and professor of chemistry at Lehigh

--On the Use of Nanoparticles to Toughen Epoxies by Ray Pearson, director of the Center for Polymer Science and Engineering and professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh

--Self-Assembly of Hydrophilic Molecular Macroions by Tianbo Liu, associate professor of chemistry at Lehigh

--Analyzing Particles Utilizing Electron Microscopy: How to Span the Millimeter-to-Nanometer Size Range by Christopher Kiely, director of the Nanocharacterization Laboratory and professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh

-- Controlling the 3-D Structure of Suspensions and Particle Assemblies by James Gilchrist, P.C. Rossin Assistant Professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh

--Characterizing the Morphology of Composite Latex Particles by Donald Sundberg, director of the Nanostructured Polymers Research Center and professor of materials science at the University of New Hampshire

The presentations for the session on Particles for Biomedical/Bioengineering Applications are:

--Micro- and Nanoparticle Applications for Flow Cytometry by Diether Recktenwald, vice president for advanced technology at BD Biosciences in San Jose, Calif.

--The Optical Bottle: Confinement, Enrichment of Nanoparticles for Analysis in a Micro-Fluidic Setting by Ou-Yang.

-- Magnetic-Fluorescent Microspheres for Manipulation of Single Molecules by Dmitri Vezenov, assistant professor of chemistry at Lehigh

--Beta-Barrel Secondary Structure of DNA on Carbon Nanotubes by Anand Jagota, director of the Bioengineering and Life Sciences Program and professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh

--Design of Biomimetic Surfactants with Applications in Bioremediation, Synthetic Biology and Biomaterials by Bryan Berger, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh

--Engineering Polymer Systems for Controlled Drug Release Applications by Anthony McHugh, department chair and professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh

The presentations for the sessions on Catalysis, Energy, and the Environment are:

--Energy Recovery from Acid-Base Neutralization through pH-Sensitive Polymers by Arup SenGupta, P.C. Rossin Professor of civil and environmental engineering and also of chemical engineering at Lehigh

--Hierarchical Nanomanufacturing of Porous Materials for Separations and Catalysis by Mark Snyder, P.C. Rossin Assistant Professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh

--Freeze Frame Spectroscopy: A Technique to Probe the Fundamental Interactions Underlying Nanocatalytic Mechanisms by David Moore, assistant professor of chemistry at Lehigh

--Surface Modified Metal Oxide Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization and Catalysis by Israel Wachs, director of the Operando Molecular Spectroscopy and Catalysis Research Lab and G. Whitney Snyder Professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh