Dow and UIUC Partnership Wins Awards | Office of Corporate Relations

As one of the nation’s top research powerhouses, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has over 150 centers, laboratories, and institutes dedicated to research on campus. The University has active contracts with 460 companies, which gives these companies access to research hubs for advanced science and technology, cancer research, supercomputing applications, and others. These research centers continuously push the envelope of their respective fields.

The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department (ChBE) is a world-renowned resource for research and talent. With over 20 research faculty, this department has led research in areas such as electrochemical reduction of CO2 into value-added chemicals, water purification based on redox technologies, development of advanced biomaterials for regeneration, engineering plastic that is biodegradable and infinitely recyclable, and much more.

Dow Inc. has a longstanding relationship with UIUC, which has resulted in groundbreaking research and a serious investment in the next generation of chemical and biomolecular engineering leaders. The hallmark of this relationship has been a focus on research and recruiting PhD graduates from Chem, ChBE and MatSE.

Recently, this partnership has earned the esteemed Industry Project Award from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). This award recognizes the process developed by Dow and UIUC to continuously and reproducibly synthesize novel quantum confined materials with superior performance across the entire emission spectrum, amongst other features of their work. The selection committee deemed this project to be an excellent example of industry-academia synergy in solving energy problems through fundamental engineering principles.

“We are honored to receive the Industry Project Award from the Institution of Chemical Engineers this year,” said Professor Paul Kenis, the Elio E. Tarika Endowed Chair and ChBE Department Head. “This award is the result of the collective work of past and present team members of Dow and Illinois.”

The award “recognizes the best chemical engineering project ... to be implemented in industry” (IChemE). The project, led by Professor Paul Kenis, Professor Moonsub Shim from Materials Science and Engineering, and Dow Inc. research scientist Kishori Deshpande, developed a sustainable, continuous process for novel quantum confined materials for lighting and display applications.

Dr. Kishori Deshpande, Senior Research Scientist at Dow, states that, “Dow’s purpose is to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. This project is a great example of the outcomes-based results from our long-standing research partnership with the University of Illinois. Together, we apply fundamental engineering principles to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. I’m very proud of our work in developing sustainable processes and materials for lighting and energy and honored to receive this award, which recognizes our effort to transition to a net zero carbon world by 2050.”

This project is one of the many notable accomplishments between UIUC researchers and corporate industry leaders. UIUC continuously conducts exciting and revolutionary research in over 100 departments on campus. Learn more about finding solutions that best fit your specific research needs.