Dr. James C. Liao, President of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, will speak on Tuesday, April 24 and Wednesday, April 25 in the 2018 Kelly Lecture Series, presented by the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering. Liao's Tuesday lecture, titled "Re-design of Metabolic Infrastructure for Carbon Management," will take place at 3:00 pm in Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room G140. Thursday's lecture, "Construction and Evolution of Escherichia coli for Utilization of C1 Compounds," will be held in Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room 3059 at 3 pm. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Dr. Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, was recently featured in Forbes for his team's research to capture infrared radiation for energy production while letting visible light pass through to crops. Agrawal is Principal Investigator of the Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program.

Two Purdue Chemical Engineering professors recently were approved for promotion by Purdue's Board of Trustees. Dr. Jeffrey Greeley was promoted to full professor. Dr. Rajamani Gounder, the Larry and Virginia Faith Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, was promoted to associate professor. Promotions are effective with the 2018-19 academic year.

Chemical Engineering alumnus Jeff Lievense (PhD '84, OChE '14) has been selected to receive the prestigious Raphael Katzen Award by the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB). The award celebrates distinguished contributions in the commercialization of biotechnology to make fuels and chemicals from renewable resources. Lievense is Genomatica’s Senior Advisor to the CEO, Bioengineering and Technology.

Purdue researchers have created a transparent polymer film that also conducts electricity, introducing an inexpensive organic material for applications such as the screens of electronic devices. Dr. Bryan Boudouris, Robert and Sally Weist Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Brett Savoie, Assistant Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, detail their discovery in a paper published in Science.