Join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering for the 2013 Ralph Peck Lecture and the Excellence in Teaching Awards and Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony on Monday April 15 from 3:15–4:30 pm in Perlstein Hall Auditorium.
Purdue University Courtesy Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and Edward W. Comings Professor of Chemical Engineering G. V. "Rex" Reklaiti
The Peck Lecture, “Progress and Prospects for the Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems,” will be presented by Purdue University Courtesy Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and Edward W. Comings Professor of Chemical Engineering G. V. “Rex” Reklaitis. A reception will immediately follow the lecture in Perlstein Hall lobby.
Launched in July 2006 with support from the NSF, over 35 industrial partners, and the four hosting universities, the Center aspires to be the national focal point for science-based development of structured organic particle-based products and their manufacturing processes. Such products, which are comprised of multi-component organic systems whose performance depends on microstructure, are widely used to deliver active substances at a pre-determined rate and in specific environments. This family of products is manufactured using similar processes across a number of industries, most notably pharmaceutical but also nutraceuticals, agricultural agents, detergents and foods. The engineering of such products encounters common technical limitations:
- Solid state physics that is poorly understood
- “Soft” materials that are delicate – high shear/high temperature conditions must be avoided
- Constitutive behavior has a hierarchy of scales and substantial complexity
The manufacturing of these products has been largely carried out in batch mode, with limited on-line sensing and automation, and limited availability of reliable engineering predictive models to support process design, scale-up and operation.
In this presentation we will outline the technical objectives and organization of the research plan under which the Center has been operating. Highlights will be given of representative research projects in areas such as understanding of material properties, predictive modeling of key unit operations, knowledge management, on-line sensing (PAT) and real time process management. Progress on the realization of the three test beds specifically targeted for production of solid oral dosage pharmaceuticals and the steps taken towards the commercialization of one of these, a continuous automated tableting line, will be reviewed.
About the Speaker
G.V. Rex Reklaitis is Burton and Kathryn Gedge Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University and currently deputy director of the Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems. At Purdue he has served as the Head of the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Computer Integrated Process Operations Center. His expertise lies in process systems engineering, the application of information and computing technologies to process and product design, process operations and supply chain management. Current research interests include applications of process systems methodology to improve pharmaceutical product design, development, manufacture and administration as well as systems studies of integrated energy networks. He was educated at the Illinois Institute of Technology (BS ChE), received MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University, has held an NSF Postdoctoral fellowship (Zurich, Switzerland) and Senior Fulbright Lectureship (Vilnius, Lithuania). He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, fellow of AIChE, past Editor-in-Chief of Computers & Chemical Engineering. He has received the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award (AICHE), the ChE Lectureship Award (ASEE), the George Lappin and Van Antwerpen Awards (AIChE) and the Long Term Achievements in Computer Aided Process Engineering Award of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. He has served on the Board of Directors of AICHE, the Council for Chemical Research and the CACHE Corporation. He has published over 240 papers and book chapters and edited/authored eight books.
Charles W. Pierce Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients
Michael Adewumi is Vice Provost for Global Programs and Professor and Quentin E. and Louise L. Wood Faculty Fellow in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University, University Park Campus. He obtained B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Gas Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. thesis advisor was Prof. Hamid Arastoopour. In his role as Vice Provost for Global Programs, he provides leadership for all Penn State’s global engagements, ranging from hosting thousands of students from more than 100 countries, sending thousands of Penn State students to more than 200 study abroad programs overseas and building strategic partnerships with institutions around the world. Prior to assuming this position, he was the Executive Director of AESEDA (Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering and Development in Africa) in which Penn State was a major partner. He is an internationally known expert in the areas of natural gas engineering, phase behavior and multiphase fluid dynamics in pipes and has published widely in these areas. His research interests encompass multiphase analysis and modeling of production, processing and transmission of oil, gas, natural gas condensates, and hydrates. He is author or co-author of more than 100 publications and has supervised 40 Ph.D. and M.S. students and 10 post-doctoral research associates.
Wen Ryan is the Executive Director of Global Biosimilar Operations with Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, where he is in charge of all aspects of Technical Operations to enable the development and commercialization of biosimilar products. He received a B.S. degree from Tunghai University, Taiwan and a Ph.D. degree from Illinois Institute of Technology, both in chemical engineering. His Ph.D. thesis advisor was Prof. Satish Parulekar. After graduating from IIT, Dr. Ryan was employed for four years by Schering-Plough Corporation, which is now part of Merck. There he managed upstream commercial manufacturing operations for α-interferon and Micromonospora-derived antibiotics. He joined Amgen, Inc. in 1993 and rose to the rank of Associate Director of Process Development. In that capacity, he directed four foundational technical disciplines: fermentation/cell culture, protein purification, process engineering, and pilot plant operations. He had a two-year sojourn from Amgen in 2002. Dr. Ryan joined Medarex, Inc. (now part of Bristol Myers Squibb), Princeton, NJ, a mid-size biotech company specializing in the development of fully human monoclonal antibodies, as Vice President of Technical Operations. At Medarex, he was in charge of Process Development, Analytical Sciences, Clinical Manufacturing, and Quality Control. After that, he joined Symbigene Inc., Carlsbad, CA, a start-up company focusing on oral delivery of biologics with symbiotic microorganisms, as Vice President of Operations. He rejoined Amgen in 2004 and since then has overseen various aspects of production and commercialization of a portfolio of Amgen’s most important therapeutics. Prior to his current position, he was Executive Director and Area Head of Therapeutic Operations (2006-2009) and Director of Global Operations (2008-2011) at Amgen.
Madhava Syamlal leads the Computational and Basic Sciences Focus Area at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which develops science-based simulations for reducing the cost and time of energy technology development. He has nearly 30 years of experience in developing and applying computational models, particularly multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. He received a B.Tech. degree from IT-BHU, Varanasi, India, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Illinois Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering. His Ph.D. thesis advisor was Prof. Dimitri Gidaspow. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of Energy in 2004, he had worked at Sriram Chemical Industries in India, EG&G, and Fluent Inc. He was the architect of the open-source multiphase CFD software MFIX, used by numerous research organizations around the world. His other major contributions include award winning software such as multi-scale modeling software for coupling device-scale CFD models with plant-scale simulation models, and the C3M software for including chemical kinetics information in CFD models. He is currently also the Technical Director of the Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative (CCSI), a consortium of five national labs, five universities and several industrial members, developing the modeling and simulation tools necessary for accelerating carbon capture technology development. His many awards and honors include the U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Achievement Award he received in 2011 from Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy.