The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering offers regular seminars to enrich the academic experience for students and faculty. When schedules permit, drop-in sessions with the speakers are offered after the seminars. 

We will be adding to our fall 2023 schedule as the information becomes available. Please check back soon!

 

Fall 2023 ChBE Postdoc Seminar Series

Fall 2023 ChBE Seminar Series

Fall 2023 ChBE Patten Seminar Series

Sept. 26
Speaker: Lauren Marbella, associate professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University
Seminar: Tracking Degradation in Commercial Li Batteries with High Chemical and Temporal Resolution

Oct. 3
Speaker:    Associate Professor Ethan Lippmann, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Seminar:  Engineering Strategies to Model and Treat Neurodegeneration

Oct. 17
Speaker:  Russell Composto, professor, materials science and engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Seminar:  Elucidating Nanoparticle Transport in Hydrogels through Particle and Matrix Engineering

Nov. 14
Speaker: Jason Shoemaker, associate professor, chemical and petroleum engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Seminar:  Mechanistic Modeling to Understand the Origins of Enhanced Immunopathology During Respiratory

 

James and Catherine Patten Seminar Series

The Patten Seminar Series brings notable professors to campus each academic year to speak on research topics across chemical and biological engineering.

James Patten was a native of Clifton, Colorado, and received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1924 from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was also a football player. His subsequent career was with Cities Service Company in the Midwest and then with J. G. White Engineering Company of New York. The Patten endowment at the University of Colorado was established by a trust in the will of Mr. Patten when he passed away in 1982.  His widow, Catherine Patten, was a graduate of Dary College in Springfield, Missouri. When she passed away in 1983, she left the remainder of the estate and the deed to her house to the Patten endowment, noting that her husband was always grateful for his education at CU. The Patten endowment has supported the Patten Seminar Series and the Patten Distinguished Lectureship in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado.

James M. and Catherine T. Patten Distinguished Lecturers

  • 2000  Robert S. Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • 2001  Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • 2002  Mark Davis, California Institute of Technology

  • 2003  Gregory Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • 2004  David Tirrell, California Institute of Technology

  • 2005  William Koros, Georgia Institute of Technology

  • 2006  Pablo Debenedetti, Princeton University

  • 2007  James A. Dumesic, University of Wisconsin, Madison

  • 2008  Jay Keasling, University of California, Berkeley

  • 2009  Frank Bates, University of Minnesota

  • 2010  Frances Arnold, California Institute of Technology

  • 2013  Harvey Blanch, University of California, Berkeley

  • 2013  Jacob Israelachvili, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • 2014  Keith Johnston, University of Texas at Austin

  • 2015  Jeffrey Hubbell, University of Chicago

  • 2016  Paula T. Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • 2018  Nicholas L. Abbott, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • 2020  Sharon C. Glotzer, University of Michigan

  • 2022  Enrique Iglesia, University of California, Berkeley

Upon Mrs. Patten’s death, the James M. and Catherine T. Patten Professorship in Chemical Engineering was formally established.  The endowment supporting this chair has since grown from $2.2 million in 1983 to over $5 million in 2004.

Patten Professorships

  • 1983 – 1985  Max S. Peters — Professor, Chair, Dean
  • 1986 – 1990  Klaus D. Timmerhaus — Professor, Chair, Associate Dean, President’s Teaching Scholar
  • 1992 – 1996  John L. Falconer — Professor, Chair
  • 1997 – 2007  Robert H. Davis — Professor, Chair, Dean
  • 2007 – Present  Christopher N. Bowman — Professor, Chair
  • 2018 – Present  Mike McGehee — Professor, Chair

Frontiers of Biological Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series

This new lecture series was established in 2017 by the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute. The series celebrates the common ground between both groups, which share space in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, and showcases preeminent leaders in biological engineering.