Students from McDonogh High School’s Chemical Engineering class visited the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering (CBEE) on February 27th. They toured lab spaces, heard from faculty and students about their innovative research, and learned about CBEE’s academic program. They were accompanied by Dr. Melanie Batarseh, an Upper School Science Teacher, and Jennifer Little, an Academic Dean.

The visit began with Dr. Marten, the Chair of CBEE, sharing insights about the department’s academic offerings and research projects. McDonogh students shared about the chemical engineering projects they were working on and asked questions about CBEE. COEIT Advisor, Hailey Turney, joined to give an overview of the application process for the CBEE program. Students enjoyed breakfast and won UMBC swag by answering questions about CBEE.

Then, students toured the laboratories of Dr. Josephson, Dr. Almodovar, and Dr. Hennigan. During the tours, ongoing research projects were discussed, equipment demonstrations were given, and lab samples were passed around to inspire curiosity amongst students.

This visit was a great opportunity for high school students to connect with CBEE faculty and students, explore potential engineering career paths, and better understand the real-world impact of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering.

Chemical Biochemical and Environmental Engineering (CBEE)

Fall 2025 PhD Funding Opportunities

Jorge Almodovar, Ph.D.
Engineering polymeric biomaterials for cell manufacturing, tissue repair, and drug delivery
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/jorge-almodovar/

Özgür Çapraz, Ph.D.
Performance of materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/ozgur-capraz/

Corine Jackman Burden, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics, synthetic biology, microfluidics, vaginal microbiome, infectious disease
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/corine-jackman-burden/

Christopher Hennigan, Ph.D.
Aerosol science, health effects, climate change, atmospheric chemistry
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/christopher-hennigan/

Claire Welty, Ph.D. 
Coupled groundwater/surface water modeling of urban systems. 
Website: https://urbanhydrology.umbc.edu/

Upal Ghosh, Ph.D.
Pollutant fate and bioavailability in soils, sediments, and aquatic environments
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/upal-ghosh/

Lee Blaney, Ph.D.
Occurrence, fate/treatment, and transport of contaminants of emerging concern
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/lee-blaney/

Tyler Josephson, Ph.D.
Develop AI and LLM tools and use molecular simulations to understand chemistry in the environment
Website: https://cbee.umbc.edu/faculty/tyler-josephson/

Application details:

Deadline for Ph.D. programs: January 7
Application fee waivers: available by emailing cbeegrad@umbc.edu
Contacting an potential advisor: Students interested in applying are welcome to reach out directly to the faculty members whose research aligns with your specific research interests. Applicants are not required to secure an advisor prior to applying to the program for Fall admission. Applicants should identify which faculty they would like to work with in your 'Statement of academic goals and research interests'

More details on Application process: https://cbee.umbc.edu/academics/graduate-application/

PhD Stipend

$39K+
($39,900/year for 2025–2026; plus tuition remission and health insurance for full-time PhD students)

Learn more about CBEE's graduate progams:  https://cbee.umbc.edu/grad

The College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) Research Day was held on April 19, 2024. Undergraduate and graduate students across the college presented their research covering a range of topics.

Congratulations to the CBEE students who received COEIT Research Day Poster Awards. Poster presenters are in bold. 

Bachelor Student Poster Awards

Authors: Tithi Prajapati, Mike Tolosa, Venkatesh Srinivasan, and Dr. Govind Rao
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Affordable Hand-held Portable Spectroscopy Technology for PAT applications

Authors: Mesha Shajahan, Preety Ahuja, and Dr. Govind Rao
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Polymer-Carbon Composite for Wearable Transcutaneous CO₂ Sensor

Doctoral Student Poster Awards

Authors: Revati Kadolkar, Vikash Kumar, Venkatesh Srinivasan, Sanjeev Kumar Ujjain, Dr. Douglas Frey, Dr. Govind Rao
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Development of a Novel Analytical Sensor Utilizing Ni-NTA and His-tag Affinity for At-Line Quantitative Analysis of Binding Proteins

Honorable Mention – Student Poster Awards

Authors: Alexander G. Doan, Matthew S. Quintanilla, Jessica E. Schafer, Casey M. Douglas, Meredith E. Morse, Dela-Joshua K. Dayie, Kay T. Latt, Julianna C. Wasiuta, Steven D. Harris, and Dr. Mark R. Marten
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Crosstalk Between Aspergillus nidulans CWIS and SIN Pathways Under Cell Wall Stress

Authors: Amir Babaei Gharehbagh, Rose Taylor, Joy Kiguru, Alyssa M. Burns, Ann Marie G. Carlton, and Dr. Christopher J. Hennigan
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Effects of Inorganic Salts and pH on the Gas-Aqueous Partitioning of Formic Acid and Acetic Acid

Authors: Elias Gilotte, Chad Sundberg, Hasib Hasan, and Dr. Govind Rao
Department: Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
Poster Title: Developing an Online ATP Sensor for Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Monitoring

Judges

Thank you to the Research Day Poster Judges for all their help review of posters, specifically,
Jorge Almodovar (CBEE).

Career Connectors: 

We are now accepting applications for the third cohort of the BEMORE REU program at UMBC. 

Application Deadline:

For best consideration, please submit your applications by March 1, 2024.

The BEMORE REU program prepares students to address knowledge gaps, develop new technologies, and bring unique perspectives to complex problems in biochemical and environmental engineering and science.

Students that join the BEMORE REU Site will gain the interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and training to address a variety of grand challenges.

Research Topics: 

•  water pollution & treatment
• sustainable plastic replacements
• smart polymers
• urban air quality
• novel biomaterials
• sustainable batteries and more. 

Additional details are available at https://bemore.umbc.edu/

Program details:

• June 3, 2024 to August 9, 2024
• $6000 stipend, travel allowance, and free on-campus housing
• Access to state-of-the-art laboratories
• Work with a diverse team of faculty and other students
• Learn about current issues in biochemical and environmental engineering and science
• Enjoy field trips, group activities, and our awards banquet

Eligibility:

• All majors are welcome to apply
• Current student at a two- or four-year college or university
• US citizen or permanent resident

APPLY NOW

Questions can be sent to  bemorereu@umbc.edu

As summer wildfire smoke choked Baltimore, UMBC air pollution researchers leapt into action

Starting this May, a series of wildfires in Eastern Canada sent enormous smoke clouds wafting into the U.S., triggering air quality warnings in cities from the Midwest to the Northeast. For days, orange skies backdropped landscapes clouded by acrid air. People who could hunkered inside with the doors and windows shut. Those who had to go out faced itchy eyes, burning throats, and worse.

As a resident of the Baltimore area—which was blanketed with particularly bad smoke in both early and late June—UMBC Professor Chris Hennigan looked at the haze with dismay. But as an environmental engineer who studies air pollution, he had an additional thought: “We were looking at the air quality forecasts, and we thought ‘We have to gather data,’” he says.

The public found many colorful words to describe the summer’s unwanted smoke: brutal, eerie, dystopian.

Hennigan and his team have been working to put numbers to the adjectives. On the roof of the engineering building, the researchers installed a squat, white sensor that monitors the levels of tiny particles in the air, particularly those measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less—smaller than most bacteria. Called PM_2.5, these particles are released in large numbers during fires. They are dangerous to human health because they can work their way into the deepest parts of the lungs and even enter the bloodstream.

The sensor showed huge spikes in PM_2.5 when the smoke blew through, on some days reaching levels considered unhealthy for anyone to breathe.

The researchers also set up equipment to filter particles out of the air. After 24 hours, they collected the filters, which they are storing, neatly labeled, in a refrigerator in Hennigan’s lab.

The filtered samples will advance at least two ongoing investigations, Hennigan says. In one avenue of inquiry, Joel Tyson, Ph.D. ’23, biochemical engineering, is studying how tiny particles can harm human lung cells. Before this year’s smoky summer, Tyson had been studying the toxic effects of particulate matter normally found in the Baltimore air. With the new smoke samples, he will start to investigate whether wildfire smoke particles, per unit, are more toxic than regular urban particulate matter, which comes from sources such as cars and power plants. Some studies have indicated that wildfire particulate matter is indeed more toxic, but more research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be reached.

In another line of research, Hennigan is also studying how particles in the air, including from smoke, may affect the climate. Undergraduate chemical engineering students Danielle Larios ’25 and Luis Rodriguez ’25 are assisting in the investigations.

The researchers study how particles of brown-colored carbon-containing material absorb light. Burning vegetation sends large amounts of this brown carbon into the atmosphere. It’s possible that the particles are trapping significant heat from the sun, accelerating the pace of planetary warming. Such effects are not normally included in global climate models, and better understanding of the process could improve humanity’s ability to predict, and manage, the coming years of climate upheaval.

Climate change and wildfires are intimately linked. This summer was not only smoky, but also scorching. July marked the hottest month ever recorded, and scientists predict that as the world continues to warm, wildfires will continue to increase in quantity and intensity. “Smokeageddon,” as headlines put it, may become the new normal.

Hennigan says recent research illuminates how much wildfire smoke has contributed to air pollution trends. He points to a paper published in September in the scientific journal Nature that estimated that since 2016, wildfire smoke in the contiguous United States has undone around 25% of the progress in air quality made between 2000 and 2016.

For the researchers in Hennigan’s lab, those effects have been felt personally. 

Rodriguez recalled how in June he had to go out to buy a fresh pack of N95 masks. “The smoke was just awful,” he says. Larios says she felt a burning at the back of her throat in just 15 minutes walking to her car.

For Tyson, the effects of the smoke were so bad that at one point he struggled to breathe and had to visit the doctor. The episode, he says, drove home the importance of his toxicology research.

All three note both the complexity of the systems they are studying and the importance of discovering new knowledge that might help society handle the environmental challenges it faces.

“Our work can have real-world impact, and that’s exciting,” says Larios.

The UMBC LSAMP 2021-2022 Annual Report highlights involvement in the UMBC LOUIS STOKES ALLIANCE FOR MINORITY PARTICIPATION (LSAMP) program. LSAMP participants have access to individualized advising, campus workshops, funded research experiences, and national and international conferences to strengthen their STEM identity and promote entry into top graduate programs. 

"...sometimes you feel as if you're not making much progress but then you come to understand that your data can be helpful to others. My PI has taught me that my role in the research lab is valuable and that routine observations can lead to progress in an experiment. "

- Excerpt From A Chemical Engineering Major '23 Research Reflection -

FALL 2021 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM (Pg 26 )

Name and Class | Major | Topic | Faculty Mentor | University

• Kaiya Meggett '25 | Pre-Chemical Engineering | Genetics | Dr. Jeff Leips | UMBC

SPRING 2022 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP  PROGRAM (pg 27)

• Makayla Headley ‘22 | Chemical Engineering | Engineering Education | Dr. Jamie Gurganus | UMBC
• Ouriel Ndalamba ‘23 | Chemical Engineering | Toxicological Chemistry | Dr. Lee Blaney | UMBC
• Diego Iglesias Vega ‘23 | Chemical Engineering | Toxicological Chemistry | Dr. Lee Blaney | UMBC 

"As I increase my involvement in my research project, I begin to appreciate the knowledge I have acquired over my academic career. Knowledge that I previously thought would be unnecessary began to gain purpose in my head as I used it everyday in the lab. Even topics that I knew would be important in my future career were very abstract. But to my surprise and relief, I was able to apply the concepts earlier than expected as an undergraduate researcher. This turned these abstract ideas and theoretical concepts into a useful tool that made my job possible and easier." 

- Excerpt From A Chemical Engineering Major '23 Research Reflection -

SUMMER 2022 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM (pg 34)

FALL 2022 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 

Faculty Spotlight (pg 33)

CLASS OF 2022 GRADUATING FELLOWS AND POST-GRADUATION PLANS (pg 40)

Danielle Larios,

‘25 Chemical Engineering - traditional track, Ancient Studies Minor

When did you begin your Research?

Spring 2023

Where does your Research take place?

Hennigan Lab, Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, UMBC

What is the focus of your Research?

Investigating the effects and properties of Aerosols, such as brown carbons, present in cloud water.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Research?

I look forward to working together with my fellow research assistants towards a real world, practical goal and continuing to do so throughout the next year.

What was the best part of your Research OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Research ?

If you are interested in research or internships, then be proactive! Even if nothing comes from it, you can only benefit from creating relationships with your professors and networking with potential companies.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

Student Ambassador for CBEE, Social Coordinator for Tau Beta Pi

What are your goals after graduation?

Pursue a master's degree in environmental engineering

Learn more about Danielle Larios:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-larios-6936a127b/