May 11- 13, 2009

The 34th Annual

David M. Mason Lecturers

in

Chemical Engineering

Will be presented by

Ronald Larson

Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan

Ronald Larson became a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1996, after working for 17 years at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He received a B.S in1975, an M.S. in 1977, and a Ph.D. in 1980, all in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

            Larson’s research interests include the structure and flow properties of viscous or elastic fluids, sometimes called “complex fluids”, which include polymers, colloids, surfactant-containing fluids, liquid crystals, and biological macromolecules such as DNA, proteins, and lipid membranes. He is also interested in fluid mechanics, including microfluidics, and transport modeling.  He has written numerous scientific papers and two books on these subjects, including a 1998 textbook, “The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids.”

Larson was the President of the Society of Rheology (SOR) from 1997 to 1999, and served on the Executive Committee of that Society during the period 1991 to 2001. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), and is currently Chairman-Elect of the Division of Polymers of the APS.  He is also a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE), where he currently serves on the Fluid Mechanics Programming Committee. In 1996, he was named the Prudential Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge England; in 2000 he was awarded the Alpha Chi Sigma Award from the AICHE; and in 2002 he received the Bingham Medal from the Society of Rheology. He is a Fellow of the APS, a Fellow of the AICHE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.   Since 2000, he has been the GG Brown Professorship of Chemical Engineering at the Univ. of Michigan.

Monday, May 11, 2009

"Microfluidic methods for analysis of polymer dynamics"

The drying of a sessile droplet is used to show how microflows can be imaged microscopically and modeled computationally. The effects of microflows on stretching and deposition of DNA molecules onto surfaces are successfully predicted.  Coarse-graining methods are developed to allow the prediction of a wide variety of polymer and colloidal phenomena, including DNA electrophoresis, polymer deformation in flow fields, and the microhydrodynamics of chiral objects and the flagella of motile bacteria.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"Can microfluidic help us solve problems in biology and biotechnology?"

We use microfluidic methods for manipulating and imaging single biopolymers, including DNA and proteins, using flow fields, surfaces, and fluorescence microscopy. Applications include genotyping potentially dangerous new influenza viruses, and observing and measuring the interactions of proteins with DNA in cellular processes such as DNA transcription.

*All lecturers will be held at David Packard Auditorium, Room 101

David Packard Electrical Engineering Building, 350 Serra Mall

4:00 p.m.

Poster Session presented by the Honor Thesis Undergraduate Students

Wednesday – May 13, 2009.

David Packard Building, Room 102 (ENTER THROUGH AUDITORIUM)

3:30 - 4:00 p.m.

Reception and dinner following Wednesday’s lecture

at the Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel

625 El Camino Real

Palo Alto, CA 94301

Reception at 6:00 p.m. – Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

For additional information and dinner reservations:
Mrs. Julie Parker
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5025
Tel: (650) 723-3143 Fax: (650) 723-9780
E-mail: jmparker@stanford.edu

LECTURES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

David M. Mason
1921 - 1988

THE DAVID M. MASON LECTURES IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING are named in honor of the late David M. Mason, who was Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Stanford University.  Born in Los Angeles, Dave Mason did both his graduate and undergraduate work at the California Institute of Technology, receiving the Ph.D. degree in 1949 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1966.  He was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and in 1984 was presented the Institute's Founders Award for outstanding contributions in chemical engineering. His research interests lay in the field of applied chemical thermodynamics and kinetics. 

Dave joined the Stanford faculty in 1955 as an associate professor in the Chemistry Department's division of chemical engineering.  The relationships forged during those years have endured and have shaped the ties that still exist between the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.  In 1960, David Mason seized the opportunity to create an autonomous Department of Chemical Engineering as a result of a Ford Foundation grant to Stanford.  The most notable aspect of the succeeding events is the rapidity with which Dave built the department to a position of excellence and national prominence, hired senior and junior faculty, and provided the department with its first home, the John Stauffer Building, third of the buildings in the Stauffer complex.  He served as Chair of the Department from 1960-72, and then as Professor from 1972 until his retirement in 1986.  Dave Mason passed away in August, 1988.

Past David M. Mason Lecturers: