CBE Faculty Research Report | 2013-2014
Message from the chair
Joel R. Fried, Professor and Chair
On August 8, 2013, I became Chair of the Department of Chemical
& Biomedical Engineering replacing the Interim Chair, John Collier,
who provided a seamless transition for which I am very grateful.
Prior to my arriving in Tallahassee, I had been the Wright Brothers
Endowed Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Dayton. I began
my academic career at the University of Cincinnati and served in a
variety of positions from Assistant Professor to Professor and Head
of the Department of Chemical Engineering and dual Professor of
Medicine in Genomics. I became Professor Emeritus on September
Dr. Joel R. Fried
1, 2010, at the time I moved to Dayton. The opportunity to join an
outstanding department of distinguished faculty in both chemical and
biomedical engineering with excellent facilities and opportunities for collaborations made my
move from Ohio an easy decision. I look forward to working with our students and faculty to help
our programs grow to new levels of excellence.
Our Department continues to grow with the appointment of Biwu Ma as Associate
Professor, also this August. Biwu comes to us from Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory
as one of three recent university-wide hires through a new strategic initiative in energy and
materials. He earned MS and PhD degrees in Materials Science from the University of Southern
California. Biwu’s research focuses on the development of new types of functional materials that
can be used for solar energy conversion and energy storage.
I am pleased to congratulate Professor Sam Grant on his recent promotion to Associate
Professor with tenure and Professor Rufina Alamo, the Simon Ostrach Professor of Engineering,
on her appointment as an FSU Distinguished Research Professor. Professor John Telotte has
been recognized by the Florida Eta Chapter of Tau Beta Pi as the Outstanding Teacher in the
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department. Professor Subramanian Ramakrishnan
returned this summer from Summer Fellow positions at both Wright Patterson AFB and Argonne
National Laboratory.
Our research productivity continues to grow with new major research funding from several
agencies. Professor Ramakrishnan has received significant new funding from the Department of
Defense, NASA and NSF. Stem cell research in our Biomedical Engineering program has been
a focus of extensive grant funds from several agencies. These include a recent BRIGE award
from the National Science Foundation and a GAP award from the FSU Research Foundation
to Professor Yan Li, and two separate awards from the James King Biomedical Research
Program (Florida Department of Health) — one to Professor Teng Ma and a second to Teng
Ma in collaboration with Professor Sam Grant. Professor Grant also has won a subcontract
on a recently awarded National Institutes of Health R01 grant to pursue the use of magnetic
resonance imaging to map electrical pathways and activation in nervous tissue. In addition,
Professor Jingjiao Guan has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to integrate
polyelectrolyte contact printing and aryldiazonium chemistry for nanopatterning.
All told, the 20 CBE faculty have generated over 10 patents, $6 million in funding, 6 books or
book chapters and numerous awards and honors just o ?\? H\??]?H YX\?????????Y?H?[??[?Y\?[?? ??YHI?H[?]?\??] H H??YH?]H[?]?\??] BBBBBB??