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Congratulations to our 2007 USC Graduate Student Day award winners:

• Engineering and Physical Sciences category:
  • First prize: Scott Greenway, PEM Fuel Cell Electrode Structure Analysis Using EIS
  • Second prize: Michael Martinez, Modeling of the Water Phase Distribution in the Gas Diffusion Layer of a PEMFC Cathode;
  • Third prize: Attilio Siani of Chemical Engineering, SiO2-Supported PtFe Cluster-Derived Catalysts
• Scholarly Poster (Physical Sciences) category:
  • First prize: Karen Uffalussy, Kinetic Characterization of Multimetallic Cluster-Derived Catalysts Used for Selective Hydrogenation of Citral

Introducing new Chemical Engineering faculty member, Christine Curtis

Christine Curtis has begun work as vice provost for faculty development - one of the two new appointments that comprise part of the reorganization of the USC Provost's Office.

Curtis, who came to USC from Auburn University where she was a professor of chemical engineering, will have responsibility for all matters relating to faculty development, including coordinating tenure and promotion and post-tenure review. In addition, she will supervise endowed chairs, named professorships, and sabbaticals. She has responsibility for the Center for Teaching Excellence, and will oversee the Faculty Excellence Initiative, the effort to hire 150 new tenured and tenure-track faculty members at the Columbia campus.

"We needed someone to help steer development of the faculty workforce and Christine Curtis is eminently experienced in that area," said William T. "Ted" Moore, vice provost for academic affairs. "She will serve as the go-to person for virtually any matter pertaining to the faculty."

Moore said the reorganization was in response to the unprecedented growth in size of the University's faculty, the new kind of faculty who will be joining USC in the coming years, and the desire to make the provost's office more efficient and responsive to the needs of faculty.

Davis' desalination technology licensed by Dow

The research professor of chemical engineering has formed a corporation and signed an exclusive deal to let Dow Chemical commercialize his new desalination process. Davis has formed ZDD Inc., named for his Zero Discharge Desalination technology, with a USC alumnus, and is awaiting patent approval on his process -- which would give him 14 patents for products or technology. More