Dr. James Caruthers, the Gerald and Sarah Skidmore Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, received Trask Innovation funding for his research in "Composite board binder systems from rice lignin" (track: physical sciences). Dr. Caruthers was one of four Engineering faculty to receive funding during this round of awards.

The Purdue AIChE Student Chapter has issued a statement regarding recent events highlighting continuing systemic racism, and provided numerous online resources for those who are interested in educating themselves further on racial issues in the United States today.

Composite binders are important materials used in furniture, flooring and other consumer products, but they can pose health hazards. Dr. James Caruthers, the Gerald and Sarah Skidmore Professor of Chemical Engineering, is leading research to develop a lower-cost, sustainable and greener method for producing composite boards - a method that is already seeing growing support from major industry players.

Drones and other aircraft effectively spray pesticides over miles of crops, but they can pollute the environment if carried off-target. One problem is that tiny droplets are hard for aerial crop sprayers, inkjet printers and other machines to control. Purdue University engineers are the first to come up with the math formula that was missing to measure a key property of these droplets. Dr. Osman Basaran, the Burton and Kathryn Gedge Professor of Chemical Engineering, and his students have figured out a way to calculate surface viscosity by looking at how a droplet stretches. A picture taken of the stretched droplet as it starts to break gives the values to put into a simple math formula that provides the surface viscosity measurement.

The International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) recognizes accomplished leaders for their contributions to the field at an international level. Four Purdue Chemical Engineering alumni, Chris Bowman (BSChE '88; PhD '91), Lisa Brannon-Peppas (MSChE '86; PhD '88), Richard Korsmeyer (MSChE '80; PhD '83), and Shankar Subramaniam (PhD '02) were recently elected into the 2020 Class of Fellows with 24 other inductees. Inductees into the Academy are nominated by other fellows.