The Heart of Tabitha Foundation partnered with Howard University Chemical Engineering Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Preethi Chandran, Ph.D., and Catholic University Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Otto Wilson, Ph.D., to continue offering its annual summer workshop for local high school students in a virtual setting. The workshop focused on college readiness and STEM careers and featured speakers from several professions.

Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Solmaz Tabtabaei recently received a four-year $450K grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for her research on the classification of legumes and cereals for 3D food printing.

Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Tao Wei recently received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for his research on multiscale simulations of metal oxide nanoparticle-protein electron transfer.

Chemical Engineering Sophomore Jordan Smith is passionate about climate change research and finding renewable energy solutions. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Smith made the move to Washington, D.C. after he was selected as a Howard University Bison STEM Scholar.

Chemical Engineering Junior Jamaka Thomas won second place in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology category at the 2018 Annual AIChE Meeting for her research submission titled: “Enrichment of Oat Protein by Means of Gravity and Electrostatic Forces.” Thomas co-authored her submission with Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Dinara Konakbayeva.

Chemical Engineering postdoctoral researcher Jyothirmai Simhadri was announced as the Post Doc/Resident/Fellow/Research Associate winner in the Physical Sciences and Engineering category for her research submission titled: "Development of Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 Biofilms for Iodate Reduction in Groundwater".

Seniors April Howard, Diwash Bajracharya, and Preety Shakya (pictured left to right) were the 2017 recipients of the ExxonMobil/AIChE-NCS Award.

Chemical engineering students participated in the 2016 AIChE Annual Student Conference in San Francisco, CA, November 14-18, 2016. Senior Simone Stanley and juniors April Howard, Anayia Reliford, Mahtab Waseem, Bekuechukwu Uzondu, Diwash Bajracharya and Okeoghene Osevwe were our shining participants.

Chemical Engineering Department Chair Ramesh Chawla has been invited to serve on the U.S Environmental Protection Agency's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology for a two-year term. As a representative member, he will represent the interests of the Howard University Department of Chemical Engineering.

Earlier this year Chemical Engineering Professor John P. Tharakan received approval for initiating a clean water project in El Salvador. He lead an EWB student team there during May 2014 to work on the project.