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Chemical & Biological Engineering News

Jeffrey Greeley
September 18, 2025

Focus on new faculty: Jeff Greeley adds new energy to sustainable catalysis research

Twenty-five years after graduating with a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jeffrey Greeley is returning to his alma mater as the Paul A. Elfers Professor in the Department of Chemical and…

Assistant Professor Fang Liu and PhD student Qianli Xing
September 15, 2025

Enabling an electric future, researchers create electrode-agnostic electrolyte

In developing a versatile new electrolyte, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has taken the next step toward a more efficient, energy-dense battery that could supplant today’s ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries. This new battery type—an…

UW Crest with engineering background
September 8, 2025

New project bringing sustainability education to all undergrad engineering students

A new initiative to introduce sustainability into the College of Engineering’s curriculum aims to ensure that every undergraduate engineering student learns about sustainability in a manner relevant to their major while they’re at the University…

Joel Paulson
September 2, 2025

Focus on new faculty: Joel Paulson is using machine learning to make everything better

Anyone who’s spent an unintended hour scrolling on their phone knows how powerful algorithms can be; those mathematical instructions guide computers and other tech in their autonomous decision making—from what Instagram photo to show next…

Rahul Rsujanani
September 2, 2025

Focus on new faculty: Rahul Sujanani is developing smarter membranes

Membranes are used for all sorts of important tasks, including desalination, industrial filtration and even kidney dialysis. But most membranes used today are not able to tackle emerging challenges. More advanced membranes, however, could open…

PhD students Charles Granger and Kevin L. Sánchez-Rivera
August 18, 2025

UW-Madison researchers map out a promising future for solvent-based plastics recycling

In the more than 100 years since researchers developed synthetic plastic, it has become the world’s most common engineered material—used in nearly everything humans produce, from automobiles and food packaging to medical implants and electronics….

Illustration of nanocatalysts
July 10, 2025

In the future, finely tuned transforming catalysts could be more efficient energy converters

In 2022, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, recorded real-time movies of extremely tiny nanocatalysts undergoing dramatic changes during carbon dioxide reduction reactions, which are an important step in making sustainable…

Postdoctoral scholar Ted Chavkin
April 7, 2025

“Super algae” could suck phosphorus out of manure and keep waterways healthy

A team of chemical and biological engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed a new strain of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, which takes up 8.5 times the phosphorus compared to its…

Postdoctoral researcher Tianwei Yan and PhD student Charles Granger
March 14, 2025

Mellow the yellow: New techniques clarify recycled plastic, increasing their value

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has developed a new solvent-based technique for removing stubborn pigments from recycled multilayer plastic packaging. The advance makes recycled plastic more commercially appealing—increasing its market value and moving…

Whitney Loo being interviewed by Alex Holloway
October 24, 2024

Ask an expert: Whitney Loo explains plastics recycling and the challenges of sustainability

Whitney Loo is the Conway Assistant Professor of chemical and biological engineering. Loo studies polymers, which are “macromolecules” composed of many repeating units. They are the building blocks for many plastics. Polymers can be difficult…