Bayer Foundation Awards $380,000 for New Graduate Chemical Engineering Fellowships at West Virginia University
Sustainability and Nanotechnology Are Focus for Ph.D. Students
The Bayer Foundation announced today it has bestowed a $380,000 grant to West Virginia University's (WVU) College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to create the Bayer Scholars for Extrusion-Compounding program in the Department of chemical engineering.
This new fellowship program will fund three WVU graduate students pursuing Ph.D.s in chemical engineering over a five-year period and is competitive with other prestigious fellowships, such as those awarded by the National Science Foundation.
Specifically, the Bayer Scholars will be members of WVU's Center for Extrusion-Compounding of Additives for Superior Plastics Performance, a state-of-the-art polymer engineering facility that is part of the Chemical Engineering Department. The Center is involved in pioneering innovative plastics processing methods that utilize both nanotechnology and "green" or sustainable processes to produce novel polymer composites. In addition, the Bayer Scholars will complete internships at a Bayer MaterialScience R&D laboratory either in the United States or overseas.
"We at Bayer are delighted to make this gift to help further the work and mission of a chemical engineering department that shares our own vision and commitment to advancing plastics technologies in the 21st Century, particularly in the areas of sustainable products and processes, and leading edge nanotechnology research," said Gregory S. Babe, President and CEO, Bayer MaterialScience LLC, and board member of the Bayer Foundation.
He pointed to the Center's current investigation of using nanoparticles to design composites with novel properties, as well as its work to develop new methods for recycling plastic components found in electronics, such as radios and television, for use in new products.
The Center for Extrusion-Compounding is closely aligned with the university's Polymer Research Initiative, which aims to stimulate new polymer research activities across campus in areas including Polymers and the Environment; Advanced Composites; Bio-based Polymers (plant-based); and, Biomedical Applications. It is a state-of-the-art engineering facility funded by the West Virginia Research Challenge Grant; the Mid-Atlantic Research Center for End-of-Life Electronics (MARCEE); the WVU Research Corporation; and several other companies.
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