By some estimates, 18 million people die each year from sepsis triggered by endotoxins – fragments of the outer membranes of bacteria. A biochemical engineer at Missouri S&T has patented a method of removing these harmful elements from water and also from pharmaceutical formulations. Her goal: improve drug safety and increase access to clean drinking water in the developing world.
The technique, as outlined in a July 2016 article in the journal Nanotechnology, involves a one-step phase separation method, using a syringe pump, to synthesize the nanoparticles. Those polymer nanoparticles have a high endotoxin removal efficiency of nearly 1 million endotoxin units per milliliter of water, using only a few micrograms of the material.
While in the Marine Corps, Missouri S&T explosives engineering Ph.D. student Barbara Rutter saw the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on her fellow soldiers’ lives firsthand. Those experiences have led Rutter to devote her graduate research to the relationship between physical building damage and TBI occurrence, so that the military can easily determine if an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion has caused such an injury.
Read More »Scientists at Missouri S&T are drawing inspiration from toy building blocks to create fixed molecular units used to accelerate the material discovery process known as rational design. They’ll use these “molecular blocks” to discover highly ionic conductive materials that could be used to make today’s much sought after all-solid-state lithium batteries.
Read More »Researchers at Missouri S&T have discovered a new way to harness the potential of a type of spontaneously oxidized MXene thin films, to create nanocomposites that could sense both light and the environment. Previously, such spontaneous oxidation was considered detrimental because it degrades the MXene structure. The research is published in the June 2018 issue of ACS Nano, one of Google Scholar’s top-rated, peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Read More »He’s driven the backroads with some of the biggest names in rock and roll, from Def Leppard and KISS to John Denver and the Eurythmics, hauling both gear and performers as a truck- and bus-driving roadie. Yet despite his many brushes with fame, what gets Mike Lusher most excited these days is his research into an unassuming desert shrub that some predict will revolutionize the rubber industry. A fascination with the guayule (why-YOO-lee) plant that began a dozen years ago while watching an episode of The History Channel show “Modern Marvels” has culminated in a Ph.D. in civil engineering for the 64-year-old grandfather, who received his diploma at May 12 commencement.
Read More »A Missouri S&T student will spend most of his summer working at Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County, Illinois.
Read More »The College of Engineering and Computing at Missouri S&T is honoring 18 graduate students in recognition of their scholarly productivity and teaching excellence. Eight doctoral students representing six academic departments have been named CEC Dean’s Ph.D. Scholars at Missouri S&T, while another 10 doctoral students affiliated with seven departments have been designated as inaugural Dean’s Graduate Educators. Each student was recognized and honored at an end-of-semester campus reception on Thursday, May 10.
Read More »A new book released today (May 15, 2018), A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record, provides the first full-length account of the men and women who shaped the creation of what is now known as American roots music.
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