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College of Engineering news

March 11, 2021

Van Lehn receives NSF CAREER Award to study nanoparticle properties for efficient cell entry

Many of the most promising new treatments in medicine involve nanoparticles, or microscopic shells that can deliver finely targeted doses of drugs or other therapeutic molecules to various parts of…

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…

Corn field
July 16, 2024

Upcycling discarded plants: New UW-Madison center to harness energy, nutrients from biomass

The nonprofit Schmidt Sciences and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) have selected a multi-institution group of researchers to establish the new Center for Mineral and Metal Oxide…

Students and postdoctoral fellows researching innovations in STRAP recycling
September 25, 2023

With innovation and determination, grad students drive new plastics recycling applications

Take a stroll through a grocery store and one thing is clear—almost everything, from meat and bread to produce and cookies—is packaged in some form of plastic. While those wrappers…

UW Crest with engineering background
December 22, 2021

A successful 2021: Looking back on the past year

For the UW-Madison College of Engineering, 2021 was a year full of extraordinary achievements. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our faculty, staff and students adapted and persevered. We continued to push…

experimental apparatus designed to separate multi-layer plastics
January 5, 2021

Undergrads were key contributors to new solvent-based plastic recycling process

For many undergraduates, a semester or two of working in a professor’s research group is a great way to learn their way around a lab and burnish their resumes or…

STRAP processing image
November 21, 2020

New solvent-based multi-layer plastic recycling process could cut down on millions of tons of plastic waste

Multilayer plastic materials are ubiquitous in food and medical supply packaging, particularly since layering polymers can give those films specific properties, like heat resistance or oxygen and moisture control. But…

August 15, 2020

Recent journal issue honors Manos Mavrikakis

The August 2020 issue of the journal Topics in Catalysis is dedicated to Paul A. Elfers, James A. Dumesic, and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor Manos Mavrikakis in the Department of…

plastic bottles
August 13, 2020

Huber to lead new multi-university plastic recycling research center

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, part of the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, is funding a new $10 million Multi-University Center on Chemical Upcycling of…

Graphic of machine learning process for biofuels
February 28, 2020

Machine learning speeds up the development of biofuel production process

Someday soon, oil refineries may trade in crude oil for agricultural waste like corn stalks or renewable plants like switchgrass in order to produce sustainable biofuels. But we’re not there…