ChemBE Spring 2017 Seminar Series
3:00 pm on Thursday, April 6, 2017
Maryland Hall 110
“Microchemical Systems for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction, Crystallization, and Antibiotic
Susceptibility Testing”
Paul J.A. Kenis
Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hosted by David Gracias
Microchemical systems have potential for a wide range of applications. In this seminar, Prof. Kenis will highlight his recent
efforts in catalyst, electrode, and electrode design, and characterization for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 into
value-added chemicals such as CO, ethylene, and ethanol. He will also focus on microfluidic platforms for crystallization,
for structural analysis of (membrane) protein crystals and for screening of solid forms of pharmaceuticals. This seminar
will also cover chips for antibiotic susceptibility testing of polymicrobial cultures. The microfluidic approach presented
here enables determining MICs within 4 hours (rather than >24 hours needed when with the current method used in
clinical practice), and can be used to study the interplay between different bacteria.
Paul J.A. Kenis is the Professor and Head of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Nijmegen-Radboud University and his Ph.D.
in Chemical Engineering from Twente University, both in the Netherlands. After a Postdoc at Harvard University, he joined
the faculty at Illinois in 2000. His research focuses on microchemical systems for applications in energy and biology
including microfuel cells, electrolyzers for CO2 conversion, and microreactors for radiolabeling of biomolecules. In
particular, he is a leading researcher in the area of CO2 utilization for synthesis of chemicals and fuels. Overall, he has
authored about 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, and his work has led to multiple patents, several of which have been
licensed for commercialization. In 2011 he was named a University Scholar and became the Head of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering. In 2013 he was appointed as the William H. & Janet G. Lycan endowed Professor.
Refreshments to follow seminar in Maryland Hall 109
Please contact Tiara at [email protected] if you have additional questions.