CoMSEF

Calling Young Scholars!

Are you looking for an opportunity to showcase your research and practice your job talk before you take the next step in your career?

The graduate students of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington are holding our annual summer seminar series featuring top young researchers in the field. We invite senior graduate students and post-doctoral scholars that have not yet accepted their first permanent positions to apply.

If selected by our graduate student panel, you will be awarded an all expenses-paid (restricted to applicants traveling from US) trip to the University of Washington in Seattle to present your research. The top seminar speaker chosen by the graduate student panel will also receive an iPad.

Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Congratulations to the 2012 CoMSEF Graduate Student Award winners:

Andrew White (University of Washington)
Advisor: Shaoyi Jiang

Christopher Wilmer (Northwestern University)
Advisor: Randy Snurr

During the fall of 2012 we elected a new Vice Chair and Liaison Directors.

Congratulations to Coray Colina (Penn State University) who was elected Vice Chair and to Jim Pfaendtner (University of Washington) and Scott Shell (University of California at Santa Barbara) who were elected Liaison Directors. Also, thanks to Joe Golab (Ineos) who was elected to continue to serve as Secretary/Treasurer.

The CoMSEF Executive Committee is pleased to announce that Professor Fernando Escobedo of Cornell University has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 CoMSEF Impact Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding research in computational molecular science and engineering and will be given to Fernando during the CoMSEF General Meeting at the AIChE Annual meeting in Pittsburgh. He will also present a talk on his research at the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the AIChE Annual meeting.

Fernando is the Marjorie Hart Chair of Chemical Engineering at Cornell. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Universidad de San Augustin, Peru, a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Fernando has made important contributions to the development of new computational methods, which he has then applied to the solution of important problems in the area of complex fluids, including polymers, colloids, and peptides. He is receiving the CoMSEF Impact Award “For the elucidation and prediction of complex phases formed by block copolymers, elastomers, and polyhedral particles, and the advancement of novel Monte Carlo simulation methods". CoMSEF Impact Award recipients must be within 15 years of completion of their highest degree and be current members of CoMSEF.

Announcement of a Workshop at the Aspen Center For Physics: “Molecular Physics of Non-Bonded Biomolecular Interactions”

Summer 2013

A proposal will be submitted to the Aspen Center for Physics (ACP) in Aspen Colorado to sponsor a three week workshop focusing on efficient computational approaches to enhance the understanding of non-bonded interactions in biological systems and assemblies.   The workshop will occur sometime during the last two weeks of June through the end of July of 2013 depending on space availability.  The purpose of this advertising statement is to find 40 Ph.D. scientists that may have interest in such a workshop.  However, no commitment is required at this time.  If the workshop is accepted, ACP will notify interested parties and put out a general invitation and application on their web site.

The purpose of the ACP is to provide an enriching and non-interrupted atmosphere for each person to work on an individual project while having time to exchange ideas with other attendees.  The workshop is partially funded by the National Science Foundation through significant reductions in housing costs.  There are no experimental facilities at ACP so all projects are computational in nature.  More information on the goals and costs of attending the workshop can be found on the ACP web site – aspenphsy.org.   

Announcing the 2012 NSF Pan American Advanced Studies (PASI) workshop on multiscale modeling and simulation:  September 2-15, 2012.  Applications are encouraged from graduate students and post-docs who wish to learn more about and get hands on experience with a wide range of computational methods in the area of multiscale modeling and simulation.  More information is available at the workshop website:  http://depts.washington.edu/pasi. Applications are due on June 1, 2012 and accepted participants will be notified by mid May.

We appreciate your help in passing this notice to your research group and other interested colleagues.

Please contact us at pasi@uw.edu with any questions.

Best wishes,

PASI co-organizers:
Jim Pfaendtner
Cameron Abrams

During the fall of 2011, we elected two new Liaison Directors. Congratulations to the newly-elected officers and thanks to all who participated!

Liaison Directors (2011-2013):

• Cynthia Lo (University of Washington in St. Louis) 
• Francisco Hung  (Louisiana State University) 

Thanks also to the two out-going Liaison Directors, Ilja Siepmann and Coray Colina, for their participation! A complete listing of the CoMSEF Executive Committee is available on the web: http://comsef.org/executivecommittee

Congratulations to the 2011 CoMSEF Graduate Student Award winners:

Andrew Paluch (University of Notre Dame)
Advisor: Ed Maginn

Lauren Abbott (Penn State University)
Advisor: Coray Colina