Here is the cover art of the November 2007 issue of the AIChE Journal Professor Nael El-Farra and co-authors show their vision of the “smart chemical plant.” Details of this vision are discussed in the perspective column.

Chenyue Xing in Roland Faller's research group performed the first systematic molecular modeling study of a supported lipid bilayer. This was featured on the June 12, 2008 cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Bruce Gates Evidence from NMR and EXAFS studies of a dynamically uniform mononuclear single-site zeolite-supported Rhodium catalyst

Bruce Gates Real-time characterization of formation and breakup of Iridium clusters in highly dealuminated zeolite Y

Bruce Gates Molecular heterogeneous catalysis: A single-site zeolite-supported Rhodium complex for acetylene cyclotrimerization

Bruce Gates and Nigel Browning Site-isolated iridium complexes on MgO powder: individual Ir atoms imaged by scanning transmission electron microscopy

Bruce Gates Probing defect sites on TiO₂ with [Re₃(CO)₁₂H₃]: Spectroscopic characterization of the surface species

Bruce Gates Role of the support in catalysis: Activation of a mononuclear Ruthenium complex for ethane dimerization by chemisorption of dealuminated zeolite Y

Bruce Gates Structurally uniform zeolite-supported mononuclear Rhodium complex characterized by spectroscopy and theory

Bruce Gates and Nigel Browning Complementary characterization of supported decaosmium clusters by EXAFS and STEM

An image made by Marjorie Longo, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, appears on the front cover of the text Methods in Membrane Lipids. It is an atomic force microscopy image of domains (yellow) containing sugar-lipids, referred to as cerebrosides. Cerebrosides are highly enriched in the myelin insulation of nerve axons and have promising anti-viral properties. This image shows that the cerebrosides can form nanometer-scale solid-like domains within the surrounding non-sugar-lipids (orange), a property that is helping to develop of an understanding of their biological functions and medical uses.

Marjorie Longo, Subhash Risbud, Roland Faller (all from CHMS) and Thomas Jue (from Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine) edited jointly a book based on the workshop "BiomembraneFrontiers: Nanostructures, Models, and the Design of Life" which features recent developments in all areas of biomembrane research.

This scanning electron microscopy image of nanostructured P3HT polymer by Adam Moule was featured on the front cover of the special "best of" issue of Advanced Materials because the original article, published in Jan. 08, was cited more times than any other article in 2008 in this journal.

An image made by Adam Moule, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science, appeared on the inside cover of the January ’08 Advanced Materials (at left). It is a scanning electron microscopy image of a porous film of P3HT on an indium tin oxide substrate. These results are interesting not only because they allow control of morphology on the nanometer scale, but they also show a path to low-cost morphological control of large-area films, an essential step for the commercialization of plastic photovoltaic devices.

A research team led by UC Davis chemical engineering and materials science professor William Ristenpart, has discovered that opposite charges don’t always attract ñ at least if they’re in drops of liquid. The findings, recently published in Nature, establish that oppositely charged drops of water ‘bounce’ off each other for sufficiently large electric field strengths. The findings have implications for a wide variety of systems that involve liquid drops, including lab-on-a-chip technologies, ink-jet printing, separation of water from petroleum or biofuels, and conduction of electricity through storm clouds.

Professor James Shackelford has written a text book entitled ìIntroduction to Materials Science for Engineersî that has had broad appeal to universities worldwide for the last 25 years. It is now in its 7th edition and the collected editions have sold well over 100,000 copies. The book has been published in various international editions and translated into Chinese, German, Korean, and Spanish. An Italian edition is currently under preparation.

Professor James Shackelford co-edited a technical monograph entitled “Ceramic and Glass Materials: Structure, Properties, and Processing” published by the European publisher Springer. The book includes articles by Professors Risbud, Shoenung, and Shackelford as well as former graduate students Lilian Davila, David Duval, and Olivia Graeve. The book turned out to be a memorial to the co-editor, Robert Doremus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Instutute, who passed away in February 2008 during the final preparation of the book. The book has been well received by the glass and ceramic communities and is a fitting tribute to Professor Doremus's many contribution to these fields.

UC Davis chemical engineering and materials science professor Pieter Stroeve is one of three lead scientists on a team that has created a hybrid of silicon nanocircuits and biological components, as published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lipid-coated nanocircuits mimic the transport of molecules back and forth through cell walls and could lead to a number of innovative biological applications, including new classes of biosensors.