A highly recognized researcher and prolific writer dedicated to creating a better environment, Joan F. Brennecke will deliver the fall 2016 John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture. Brennecke is the Keating-Crawford Professor of Chemical Engineering and the founding director of the Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame University.
The Hall Lecture is Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 4:10 p.m. in Featheringill Hall’s Jacobs Believed In Me Auditorium. A reception in Adams Atrium will follow the lecture – “Better Carbon Capture for a Better Environment: Ionic Liquids for Energy-Related Applications.”
Brennecke’s research interests are primarily in the development of less environmentally harmful solvents. These include supercritical fluids and ionic liquids. In developing these solvents, her primary interests are in the measurement and modeling of thermodynamics, thermophysical properties, phase behavior and separations.
Brennecke will discuss how ionic liquids can be designed for a variety of important energy-related applications, including removal of CO2 from a number of gases and the use of ILs for two different types of refrigeration systems, both of which offer environmental advantages over conventional technology and improve performance. Brennecke also will show how ionic liquids’ improved ‘ionicity’ is important in the use of ILs as electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells and supercapacitors.
Brennecke serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data. Her 150+ research publications have garnered over 14,000 citations. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012.
She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2001 Ipatieff Prize, the J. M. Prausnitz Award at the Eleventh International Conference on Properties and Phase Equilibria in 2007, the 2008 Stieglitz Award, and the 2014 E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.
Brennecke joined Notre Dame after completing her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B.S. degree at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Hall Lecture series was established in 2002 to allow Vanderbilt School of Engineering students hear renowned engineers from universities and agencies address engineering topics of particular interest.
Contact:
Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
Brenda.Ellis@Vanderbilt.edu
Twitter @VUEngineering