Photo caption:  The Schwartz lab discovered that molecules move around on surfaces via a complex type of motion involving crawling, hopping and flying.

           Professor Dan Schwartz

Professor Daniel K. Schwartz has been honored with the prestigious American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry 2024 Langmuir Lectureship award. He was nominated by his colleagues for significant contributions to the field of colloid and interface science.

Colloids are mixtures in which one substance is finely dispersed in another substance. Interface science refers to the boundaries between different phases of matter, such as between two unmixable liquids, or between a liquid and a solid. 

Schwartz, a professor in ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, said the award was significant for several reasons. 

“Most importantly, it recognizes the excellence of research performed by my PhD students and postdocs, past and present,” he said. “The recognition is also special because it is sponsored jointly by the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry and the ACS journal Langmuir, both of which are very close to my heart. The namesake of the award, Irving Langmuir, a Nobel laureate and the foundational figure of surface science, is a long-time scientific hero of mine.”

Schwartz will receive a commemorative plaque, complimentary registration and reimbursement for travel expenses to the ACS fall 2024 meeting and a $3,000 award. He  will also deliver a special lecture at the ACS fall 2024 symposium.

Single molecule/nanoparticle tracking microscopy is
used to study transport in the liquid-filled void spaces of
porous materials.

Schwartz’s colloid and interface science research carries significant practical implications for various fields. These include membrane-separation processes and biocatalysis applications such as water purification, wastewater treatment, food and beverage processing and pharmaceutical manufacturing. His work also extends to chemical production as well as environmental remediation and biofuel synthesis.

“Dan’s contributions to fundamental understanding of dynamic interfacial phenomena are extraordinary,” the nominators said in a letter to the selection committee. “He has provided new windows into monolayers at interfaces, on solid boundaries and new approaches to understanding fundamental transport of confined molecules, nanoparticles and active particles in porous media. This work is of extraordinary scope and rigor.”

The award also entails an expectation that Schwartz will submit a feature article for publication in Langmuir within six months following his lectureship presentation.

“It is incredibly satisfying to share the award with my PhDs and postdocs,” Schwartz said. “I’m eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to describe their work to the award lecture audience in August.”

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Daniel Schwartz, Glenn L. Murphy Professor of Engineering, has received the College of Engineering and Applied Science 2023 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award. The award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate exceptional advising skills with graduate students and who serve as role models to other advisors.

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Surpassing more than 300 participants, chemical engineering PhD student Hector Sanchez-Moran took home first prize at the PEGS Essential Protein and Antibody Engineering Summit poster presentation competition. The summit took place from May 15-19 in Boston. 

Sanchez-Moran's said his poster explored significant advancements in the field of enzyme immobilization and its applications.

"This award signifies recognition for my years of research in the Kaar and Schwartz labs," said Sanchez-Moran, who is co-advised by Professor Daniel Schwartz and Associate Professor Joel Kaar. "The award, along with the enthusiastic responses from individuals I engaged with regarding my poster, demonstrates the value the biotechnology community places on our work, highlighting the significant implications of efficient enzyme immobilization."

The summit bills itself as "the leading biologics event," with comprehensive programming covering biologic drug development, including in-depth presentations on protein and antibody engineering, immunotherapy, oncology, expression, analytics and immunogenicity.

Enzyme immobilization has been extensively employed by protein engineers for a variety of applications, including bioremediation, biosensors and industrial biocatalysts. However, the precise understanding of how enzyme immobilization and its applications interact is not yet well understood, Sanchez-Moran said. His poster shed light on the complex nanoscale stabilizing interactions that lead to the remarkable stabilization of important enzymes used in detergent production, pharmaceutical manufacturing and the food industry. While these enzymes are barely stable above body temperature, Sanchez-Moran's immobilization technique demonstrated the ability to maintain their functionality up to boiling temperatures, thereby enhancing their utility in industrial settings.

Sanchez-Moran said it was his first experience attending a conference with significant industry participation.

"It was interesting to present my poster alongside representatives from leading biotech companies and engage in conversations about their own technologies," he said. "It's fascinating to observe the delicate balance these companies maintain, walking the fine line between disseminating their findings while protecting crucial information regarding their intellectual property."

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PhD Student Albert Velasco Abadia was awarded the prestigious Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Gold Award for his research in using biological catalysts — also known as enzymes — for triggering shape reconfigurations in liquid crystal network "smart" materials.

These materials change shape in response to heat or light, with the movement used for actuation of robotics.

Velasco Abadia, who is advised by Associate Professor Joel Kaar and Professor Dan Schwartz, was first chosen as a finalist for the MRS Graduate Student Award and then invited to present his research at the society’s spring conference in San Francisco on April 13. He was awarded the highest graduate student honor on the basis of his talk.

"This award means a lot to me," Velasco Abadia said. "It recognizes the teamwork of Dan (Schwartz) and Joel (Kaar), and the work we are doing in cooperation with Tim White. It shows collaboration within the department really works."

Schwartz said Velasco Abadia initiated and led an entirely new project in his lab, collaborating with the White Group to immobilize enzymes within liquid crystal networks and creating a new class of responsive materials. While previous liquid crystal networks had been designed to respond to simple chemical cues, such as acids or bases, Velasco Abadia created shape- and color-changing materials that react to diverse and specific biochemical signals, directly relevant to biomedical and environmental applications.

Velasco Abadia said the research could be potentially applicable in tissue engineering, such as coronary stents that automatically expand on encountering fatty plaque, or in drug delivery, with the materials "knowing" the amount of glucose in a diabetic person's body and then releasing insulin when needed.

Because this project intersected biomolecular and materials science research, Velasco Abadia was required to develop wide-ranging expertise in modifying and expressing proteins, synthesizing liquid crystal materials, designing shape-changing constructs and characterizing the chemical, mechanical and catalytic properties of the resulting materials and constructs, Schwartz said.

"Albert has been an incredibly creative and productive researcher," he said. "He deserves full credit for his success, frequently bringing new ideas and interpretations to his research. I can’t recall another student who brought the same level of chemical sophistication and initiative. In many ways, supervising Albert has felt more like a collaboration with a peer than mentoring a student."

Velasco Abadia also recently won an American Chemical Society (ACS) award for excellence in graduate polymer research and was invited to give a talk at the ACS spring meeting. He plans to complete his PhD in biological engineering in June.

"I want to thank both my advisors — they have always supported me — and my labmates and my collaborators in the R+PM Lab," Velasco Abadia said. "No one had put enzymes in these materials before us. There was a lot of skepticism whether it would work, but we showed we could make this work.”

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Professor Daniel Schwartz of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has become the new interim director of the Environmental Engineering Program, effective Jan. 1. Schwartz, who previously served as ChBE chair,  will lead efforts to further align environmental engineering with college and campus goals in climate and sustainability and help position the program for the next permanent faculty director. 

As a faculty member from outside EVEN, Schwartz will provide a unique perspective for environmental engineering,  a Top 10-ranked program at both the undergraduate and graduate level among public universities. Over the next 18 months, a college-wide or national search to fill the director position will occur; Schwartz will not be a candidate for director after his interim appointment expires.

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Haichao Wu (right) with Daniel Schwartz. Photo provided by Wu.

Haichao Wu of the Dan Schwartz Group is the winner of the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s 2021 Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Nanoparticle Tracking to Probe Transport in Porous Media.” This award is a recognition of the quality and excellence of Wu’s research as well as his presentation of the dissertation. 

Porous media — materials containing pores — are used in processes such as food processing, water treatment, pharmaceutical production and more. There are currently no universal models that can predict mass transport due to the complexity of porous media and the coupled dynamic mechanisms at work during the process.

“To address this issue, I have developed refractive index matching imaging systems, combined with single-particle tracking methods to directly visualize the single-particle motion within a variety of porous materials,” Wu said. “I have elucidated the fundamental particle transport mechanisms in porous media, which provided important insights for various application scenarios, including reducing membrane fouling and deploying nanomotors for biomedical applications.”

Wu’s experience as a graduate student in the Dan Schwartz Group helped prepare him for a research career in a number of significant ways.

“The research training in the Schwartz group helped me develop critical thinking and problem solving abilities, which ultimately helped me to evolve as an independent researcher,” Wu said. “The inspiring discussions with my advisor Dan and other labmates have motivated me to think bigger, smarter and bolder, and made me more dedicated to address urgent and important problems in the chemical engineering field.”

Glenn L. Murphy Endowed Professor Daniel Schwartz mentored Wu through his PhD candidacy.

“It was a great pleasure to have a student like Haichao, who is such a creative, curious and fearless researcher,” Schwartz said. “His dissertation was notable for including both fundamental and applied research, and he was required to develop a wide range of abilities, from the synthesis of nanomaterials to super-resolution imaging to computational simulations.”

Schwartz said that Wu was a positive presence in the group and department, as he often provided advice, support and mentorship to his fellow students and researchers, and frequently volunteered for student activities.

“He was a joy to mentor because he is sincerely eager for feedback and constructive criticism,” Schwartz said. “If I didn’t provide it spontaneously, he actively sought it out. I feel very lucky to have served as his advisor.”

Wu earned his PhD earlier this year and has since joined the at Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow, where he is working on machine learning-aided materials design and investigating transport phenomena in various materials.

“In the future, I hope to work in academia as I enjoy doing research and teaching, and hope to motivate future generations to tackle difficult but important research problems as my advisor Dan taught me,” Wu said.

As a researcher, he is particularly interested in membrane fouling, as that is one of the primary barriers to maintain high performance in separation processes.

“I am interested in understanding the fundamental fouling mechanisms, developing anti-fouling membrane materials and optimizing the separation processes,” Wu said. “Eventually, I hope to combine these three perspectives to develop next generation, high performance and energy efficient separation processes."

Wu credited several people with helping him achieve this recognition during his time at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder.

“Firstly, I want to thank my advisor, Dan Schwartz,” Wu said. “He is always extremely supportive, and his unwavering and inspirational guidance will have a long-lasting impact on me. Secondly, I want to thank my friends who accompanied me through my graduate studies, which made my time in Boulder enjoyable and memorable. Lastly, I want to thank my parents for their tremendous encouragement and support throughout my life. Their role in making this happen cannot be emphasized enough.”

Wu will be honored at the College of Engineering and Applied Science Recognition Ceremony on Thursday, December 16.

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