Thesis defence

You are welcome to attend Sungo Park's final PhD defense, in which he will discuss his research into developing a technology to characterize and process environmentally friendly materials using starch as co-polymer and nano-filler. The research aimed to extend the range of properties of starch materials while maintaining environmental benefits and competitive physical properties for applications such as packaging and agriculture.

The Department of Chemical Engineering is hosting the PhD defence of Maryam Omidvarm, a PhD candidate from the University at Buffalo, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Committee members:

• Dr. Haiqing Lin (Advisor)
• Dr. Chong Cheng
• Dr. Mark Swihart

Supervisor: Professor Mark Pritzker, Chemical Engineering

Supervisor: Professor Zhongwei Chen, Chemical Engineering

Supervisor: Professor Christine Moresoli, Chemical Engineering

Supervisor: Frank Gu, Chemical Engineering

Supervisor: Zhongwei Chen, Chemical Engineering

Supervisors: Ali Elkamel, Chemical Engineering, and William Anderson, Chemical Engineering

Supervisor: Michael Fowler, Chemical Engineering

Biological systems are essential in biopharmaceuticals, where rising demand requires efficient bioreactor operation. Scaling from lab to industry is limited by gradients from poor mixing, reducing yields through cell stress and adaptation. This work quantified dissolved oxygen, pH, and kLa gradients in a 20 L bioreactor. While cell density and metabolite gradients were inconclusive, metabolic responses were modeled with modified Monod kinetics, which adapted well to differing conditions.