Seminar

Hal S. AlperProfessor & Cockrell Family Regents Chair in EngineeringDepartment of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of Texas-AustinAustin, TX Beyond the test-tube: metabolic engineering for next-generation applications Advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can enable microbes to produce nearly any organic molecule of interest—from biofuels to biopolymers to pharmaceuticals. While this approach has fueled the industrial biotechnology,...

Phil ChristopherUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA Catalyst deactivation: Mechanisms, stability by design, and pathways to machine-learned models Supported metal catalysts are used ubiquitously in industrial applications for energy conversion, material/chemical manufacturing, and pollution mitigation. Fundamental research often focuses on elucidating structure-function relationships that connect active site structures and compositions to their reactivities. Relationships...

Kate GallowayMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, MA Engineering high-precision, dynamic genetic control systems for cell fate programming Integrating synthetic circuitry into larger transcriptional networks to mediate predictable cellular behaviors remains a challenge within synthetic biology. In particular, the stochastic nature of transcription makes coordinating expression across multiple genetic elements difficult. Further, delivery of large genetic cargoes...

Önder MetinCollege of Sciences, Koç UniversityIstanbul, Türkiye Rational Design of Nano(photo)Catalysts for Green and Sustainable Chemical Conversions Catalysts are central to numerous industrial processes, including fuel synthesis, polymer production, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, enabling reactions to proceed under milder conditions, with lower energy requirements, and with better selectivity by minimizing undesirable byproducts. Over the last quarter...

Seth DarlingArgonne National LaboratoryLemont, IL Layered Phyllosilicate Membranes for Energy-Critical Ion Separations in Resource Recovery Energy systems depend not only on resilient generation and efficient storage but also on the management of critical materials. One of the most pressing challenges is the selective extraction and purification of ions from complex aqueous environments—such as recovering lithium...