2022 has been a year of returning to the office, labs and in-person events for our faculty, staff, and students after nearly two years of persistent shutdowns, virtual learning, and online events. As we start 2023 off, let us look at some of Chemical Engineering’s highlights over the last year.

This year we saw new positions, welcomed new faces and wished others well in their retirements. Brian Amsden was re-appointed to a second term as Department Head, Aris Docoslis was appointed the new Associate Dean, Graduate Studies for FEAS, and Carlos Escobedo stepped up as FEAS Interim Special Advisor Research. Additionally, Robin Hutchinson will become Acting Head for 2023. We  welcomed a new Faculty member, Kevin De France who is building a research program that will explore the design of sustainable bio-based materials and their application in fields spanning the biomedical, coatings & packaging, and environmental sectors. In summer 2023, we will welcome Rachel Baker to commence the inaugural Robins Family Professorship of Engineering Chemistry. Additionally, there were several staff changes. Ying Zhang moved to the position of Lecturer and Laboratory Coordinator, Mahmoud Khademi moved to the position of Senior Research Engineer and Sophie Felleiter joined the department in the newly created role of Research Development Coordinator. Finally, this summer, the department celebrated the retirement of Professor Juliana Ramsay, Professor Thomas Harris, Professor Kimberly Woodhouse, and Lecturer and Laboratory Coordinator David Poirier.

Our faculty, staff, and students also received numerous awards in recognition of their research excellence, scholarly aptitude, and dedication to their work. Highlights include:

• Jeffrey Giacomin was renewed Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Physics of Fluids
• Michael Cunningham was awarded the Chemical Institute of Canada Macromolecular Science and Engineering Award
• Cao Thang Dinh was one of three early researchers at Queen’s who won the University’s top prize for Excellence in Research. Cao was also, for the second year in a row, named a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Clarivate
• Dominik Barz won Queen’s University FEAS Research Excellence Award.
• Aris Docoslis was appointed the Hazell Research Professor in Chemical Design and Innovation.
• Our faculty received several teaching awards including Paul Hungler and David Poirier who both won the FEAS Innovation in Teaching Award and Garry Rasmussen who won the Applied Science First Year Teaching and Learning Award. Paul also received the Principal’s Teaching and Learning Educational Technology Award.
• Former Dean of Engineering, Interim Vice-Principal (Research), and Chemical Engineering Professor, Kimberly Woodhouse, was one of six 2022 Queen’s Distinguished Service Award recipients.
• Kelly Sedore, our senior chemical technologist, won the FEAS Engineering Esteem Leadership Award.

Student Awards

• Steacy Coombs and Mona Kanso both received Society of Plastics Engineering Scholarships
• Steacy also won the Best Student Paper by the Society of Plastics Engineers – Applied Rheology Division and the CSCHE Best Master’s Thesis Award
• Yuxi Zhang won the Canadian Biomaterials Society WBC2016 Legacy Travel Award for top abstract
• Sandra Smeltzer was one of six Queen’s students to receive a 2022 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
• Isaac Thevathasan and Cornelius Obasanjo won best poster prizes at Queen’s Engineering Research Networking Day

2022 was also an excellent year for research, from developing a graphene kidney to treat contaminated waters (Louise Meunier and Ehssan Koupaie) to creating a circular economy for recyclables using plastic-hungry microbes (Laurence Yang and Jim McLellan) to developing next-gen control technology for navigation of High-Altitude Platform Systems (Martin Guay). Our faculty were awarded over $1.5 million in research funding, published over one hundred articles in peer reviewed journals, and attended national and international conferences. This includes two faculty who renewed NSERC Discoveries (Dominik Barz and Jeffrey Giacomin) and four faculty who received funding from NSERC RTI (Brian Amsden, Cao Thang Ding, Lindsay Fitzpatrick and Laura Wells). Cao Thang Dinh and Laurence Yang received funding from the competitive NFRF-Exploration program for developing electro-bio hybrid systems for converting CO₂ to bioplastic. Kevin De France brought in funding from CFI JELF to support purchasing equipment and instruments to begin establishing his research program. Marianna Kontopoulou was awarded funding from the Queen’s Technology Development Pilot Program to enhance commercialization and licensing opportunities. Finally, the department was excited to offer, for the first time, an internal funding opportunity to support faculty research. Dominik Barz and Robin Hutchinson were the first winners, receiving funding to support student stipends and purchasing new instruments.

We were thrilled to resume many activities in-person that had either paused or went virtual during the pandemic. The Departmental Seminar Series resumed, including the first David W. Bacon Distinguished seminar (coordinated by Nicolas Hudon) in more than two years, where we were joined by Harvard Dean of Engineering Francis J. Doyle III. Graduate Students attended and presented at local events, including our in-house research poster day, Queen’s Engineering Research Networking Day, and the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference, where the department supported students, including eight undergraduates, to attend  the conference in Vancouver. For the first time in two years, the whole department was also able to get together for a summer social and holiday party.

We look forward to what 2023 brings!