Chemical Engineering

UC Berkeley

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Nitash P. Balsara Group
Upcoming Talks by Group Members

Upcoming Presentations

Nisita Wanakule, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Effects of Lithium Salts on the Domain Size of Polyethylene Oxide Containing Block Copolymers," March 14th, 2008

Scott Mullin, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Morphology Study in Block Copolymer Electrolytes," March 13th, 2008

Moon Park , American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Increased Water Retention in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes Assisted by Capillary Condensation," March 13th, 2008

Justin Virgili, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Structure and Thermodynamics of Block Copolymers Doped with Ionic Liquids," March 13th, 2008

Xin Wang, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Water Uptake and Proton Conductivity of Asymmetric Poly(styrenesulfonate-block-methylbutylene) Copolymers," March 13th, 2008

Nitash Balsara, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Thermodynamics, Structure and Transport in Model Fuel Cell Membranes," March 13th, 2008

Enrique Gomez, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Effect of Lithium Ion Distribution on Conductivity of Block Copolymer Electrolytes," March 11th, 2008

Amish Patel, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Measurements of the Onsager coefficient in a phase-separated polymer blend," March 10th, 2008

Alisyn Nedoma, American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "The Molecular Weight and Composition Dependence of Measured Flory-Huggins Interaction Parameters for Blends of Model Polyolefins," March 10th, 2008

Ed Feng , American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Nucleation in Polymer Blends," March 10th, 2008

Greg Stone , American Physical Society March Meeting, New Orleans, LA, "Effect of Hydrogen-Bonding Junctions on Microphase Separation in Block Copolymers," March 13th, 2008

Group Members' Recent Presentations

Nitash Balsara, Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, "Block Copolymer Electrolytes for Batteries and Fuel Cells", November 28, 2007.

Nitash Balsara, Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Rayleigh, North Carolina, "Block Copolymer Electrolytes for Batteries and Fuel Cells", November 19, 2007.

Enrique Gomez, Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Salt Lake City, Utah, "Imaging The Lithium Distribution Within Nanostructured Polymer Electrolytes", November 8th, 2007.

Enrique Gomez, Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Salt Lake City, Utah, "Effect of Crosslinking on the Structure and Thermodynamics of Block Copolymers", November 6th, 2007.

Nitash Balsara, Invited Lecture, Users Meeting for Spallation Neutron Source and Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, "Ion Transport in Block Copolymer Electrolytes", October 9, 2007.

Nitash Balsara, Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, "Ion Transport in Block Copolymers", September 5, 2007.

Nitash Balsara, Invited Lecture, The Science and Technology of Well-Controlled Polymer Assemblies, "Block Copolymer Electrolytes for Lithium Battery Applications", Kyoto University, Japan, June 11, 2007.

Enrique Gomez, UC Berkeley Chemical Engineering Seminar, "Electron Microscopy of Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium Batteries," May 23rd, 2007

Nitash Balsara, 211th Electrochemical Society Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, "Structure-Property Relationships in Block Copolymer Electrolytes," May 7th, 2007

Jeffrey Wilbur, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Guided Wave Depolarized Light Scattering of Block Copolymer Thin Films," March 9th, 2007

Justin Virgili, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Structural Characterization of of Block Copolymer Thin Films Using Resonant Soft X-Ray Scattering," March 9th, 2007

Nisita Wanakule, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Phase Behavior of A/B/AC Polymer Blends," March 9th, 2007

Alisyn Nedoma, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Composition Dependent Chi(AB) Values in Critical Blends of Polyisobutylene and Deuterated Polybutadiene," March 9th, 2007

Ed Feng, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Nucleation in Polymer Blends," March 9th, 2007

Moon Jeong Park, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Structure and Phase Transition in Sulfonated Block Copolymer," March 8th, 2007

Enrique Gomez, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Toward structure-property relationships in block copolymer electrolytes," March 8th, 2007

Amish Patel, American Physical Society March Meeting, Denver, Colorodo, "Structure and Dynamics of Microphase Separating Block Copolymer Melt," March 8th, 2007

Group Meeting Seminar Schedule
775 B Tan Hall, Tuesdays 4-6 pm unless otherwise noted

Seminar speakers:

  Jan 8 Organizational Meeting
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Group A: Amish, Nisita, Enrique, Moon, Scott, Justin
Group B: Alisyn, Jeff, Ed, Ashoutoush, Greg

Each group meeting will start with a 10 min talk by either group A or B, maximum number of slides = 2. The 60 min seminar is based on literature, preferably a collection of papers written by other groups related to the research. Current research may be integrated into the seminar, but the emphasis must be on literature.

The person in bracket provides snacks.

Specialized Seminars

SCFT courses are taught by Ed Feng. Focus is primarily on practical skills used for modelling polymer behavior using C.

Scattering School courses are taught by Nitash Balsara. The theory and physics behind scattering (light, xray, and neutrons) are explained, especially for polymer applications.

Polymer Summer School is an open discussion with weekly topics in current polymer research. Participants of the seminar alternate giving presentations.

Nitash Balsara's Upcoming and Past Presentations

136. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the Materials Research Society, Boston, Massachusetts, Symposium on Electron Microscopy across Hard and Soft Materials, December, 2006.

135. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, California, Symposium on Block Copolymers as Nanoscale Materials, "Nanostructured Block Copolymer Electrolytes", September 13, 2006.

134. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, California, Symposium on Block Copolymers as Nanoscale Materials, "Fluctuation Relaxation in multicomponent systems containing micelles and other aggregates", September 11, 2006.

133. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Polymer Physics, New London, Connecticut, "Ion-Containing Block Copolymers", July 26, 2006.

132. Invited Lecture, US-Poland Nanotechnology Workshop Sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, "Ion-Containing Block Copolymer Nanostructures", June 19, 2006.

131. Invited Lecture, American Conference on Neutron Scattering, Chicago, Illinois, "Phase Behavior of Polymer Blends Stabilized by Balanced Surfactants", June 26, 2006.

130. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, "Ion-Containing Block Copolymers", April 14, 2006.

129. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlanta, Georgia, Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering Symposium honoring Richard Spontak and Steven Smith, "Ion-containing Block Copolymer Nanostructures", March 27, 2006.

128. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, "Neutron Scattering and Monte Carlo Determination of the Variation of the Critical Nucleus Size with Quench Depth", December 14, 2005.

127. Invited Lecture, Workshop on Directed Self-Assembly of Nanoscale Structures, University of California, Los Angeles, California, November 9, 2005.

126. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Charles A. Stine Award Lecture, "Ion-Containing Polymer Nanostructures", Cincinnati, Ohio, November 2, 2005.

125. Keynote Speaker, Joint Chemical Engineering Meeting, China/USA/Japan, Conference on Nanotechnology, Beijing, China, "Ion-Containing Polymer Nanostructures", October 11, 2005.

124. Invited Lecture, European Discussion Meeting in Polymer Physics-Polymer Crystallization, Waldau, Germany, "Formation of the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends, October 5, 2005.

123. Invited Lecture, Workshop on Soft X-ray Scattering from Soft and Hard Matter, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, September 30, 2005.

122. Invited Lecture, Materials Research Using Neutrons (Symposium to honor Mike Rowe and Jack Rush), National Institute of Science and Technology, "A Universal Mechanism of Phase Separation", Gaithersburg, Maryland, September 9, 2005.

121. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., Preparing for the Bright Future of Neutron Scattering in the US, Analytical Chemistry Division, "Small Angle Neutron Scattering Studies of the Initial Stages of Phase Separation", September 1, 2005.

120. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., Scattering from Polymers Symposium, Polymer Materials Science and Engineering Division, "Designing Balanced Surfactants for Organizing Immiscible Polymers", August 30, 2005.

119. Plenary Lecture, Inaugural Users Meeting for Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, "Challenges and Opportunities in Polymer Nanoscience", May 23, 2005.

118. Invited Lecture, Prospects in New Materials Science (Workshop to foster new US-Japan collaborations in materials science), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, "Ion-Containing Polymer Nanostructures", April 25-27, 2005.

117. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, Indiana, "Diffusion and Equilibration of Surfactants for Polymer-Polymer Interfaces", April 12, 2005.

116. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society, Los Angeles, California, "Functional Microstructures from Iron-Containing Block Copolymers", March, 2005.

115. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, "Characterization and Design of Surfactants for Polymer-Polymer Interfaces", January 6, 2005.

114. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, "Characterization and Design of Surfactants for Polymer-Polymer Interfaces", January 3, 2005.

113. Invited Lecture, "Characterization and Design of Surfactants for Polymer-Polymer Interfaces", Complex Fluids Symposium, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, January 1, 2005.

112. Invited Lecture, "Searching for the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends", Joint meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Mumbai, India, December 28, 2004.

111. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State
University, State College, Pennsylvania, December 7, 2004.

110. Invited Lecture, Polymer Science Lecture Series, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, "Searching for the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends", September 9, 2004.

109. Invited Lecture, Mini-Symposium on Bioinspired Dry Adhesive Pads for Climbing, Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), July 16, 2004.

108. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Complex Fluids, New London, New Hampshire, "Initial Stages of Nucleation in Phase Separating Polymer Blends", July 5, 2004.

107. Invited Lecture, American Conference on Neutron Scattering, College Park, Maryland, "Searching for the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends", June 7, 2004.

106. Invited Lecture, Materials Research Society Meeting, Symposium on Nucleation Phenomena-Mechanisms, Dynamics, and Structure, "Searching for the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends", San Francisco, California, April 13, 2004.

105. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, "Does Conventional Nucleation Occur during Phase Separation in Polymer Blends", March 2, 2004.

104. Invited Lecture, Boston Scientific, Minneapolis, Minnesota, "Balanced Surfactants for Organizing Immiscible Materials", March 1, 2004.

103. Departmental Seminar, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, November 21, 2003.

102. Departmental Seminar, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, November 20, 2003.

101. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara, October 23, 2003.

100. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, October 6, 2003.

99. Invited Lecture, Tyco Electronics, Menlo Park, California, September 24, 2003.

98. Invited Lecture, Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, September 7, 2003.

97. Invited Lecture, Soft Matter and Biophysics Workshop, Organized by Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook, New York, September 5, 2003.

96. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Physics of Liquids, August 6, 2003.

95. Invited Lecture, Institut fur Festkoperforschung, Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany, July 17, 2003.

94. Invited Lecture, Department of Physics, University of Freiburg, Germany, July 15, 2003.

93. Invited Lecture, ESPCI, Paris, July 5, 2003.

92. Invited Lecture, College de France, Paris, July 4, 2003.

91. Invited Lecture, Institut de Physique, University of Strasbourg, France, July 2, 2003.

90. Invited Lecture, Structured Fluids and Soft Solids Symposium, ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, June 18, 2003.

89. Invited Lecture, Nucleation Symposium, ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, June 17, 2003.

88. Invited Lecture, Workshop on Nanotechnology in Mechanical Engineering, National Science Foundation, June 15, 2003.

87. Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society, Austin, Texas, March, 2003.

86. Department of Chemical Engineering, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, February, 2003.

85. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, January, 2003.

84. Materials Research Society, Boston, Massachusetts, December, 2002.

83. Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology, Nagaoka, Japan, 2002.

82. Fourth Kyoto Symposium on Rheology, Japan, October, 2002.

81. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, September, 2002.

80. Discussion leader, Gordon Research Conference, Polymer Physics, Newport, Rhode Island, August, 2002.

79. Invited Lecture, Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland, July, 2002.

78. Invited Lecture, Max Plank Institute for Polymers, Mainz, Germany, July, 2002.

77. Departmental Seminar, Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Cologne, Germany, July, 2002

76. Invited Lecture, Department of Physics, University of Freiburg, Germany, July, 2002.

75. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the Division of Colloids, American Chemical Society, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June, 2002.

74. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Orlando, April 2002.

73. Invited Lecture, Bend Research Inc., Bend Oregon, January, 2002.

72. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, January, 2002.

71. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting on Photonic Materials, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, January, 2002.

70. Invited Lecture, Golden Gate Polymer Forum, Mountain View, California, December, 2001.

69. Discussion Leader, Elastomers Gordon Conference, New London, New Hampshire, August, 2001.

68. Invited Lecture, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, April, 2001.

67. Invited Lecture, ExonMobil Chemical Company, Baytown, Texas, March, 2001.

66. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, March, 2001.

65. Invited Lecture, Flory Symposium, Stanford University, California, Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, February 2001.

64. Invited Lecture, Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory, Soft X-Ray Speckle: Nanoscale Dynamics in Liquids and Solids, October, 2000

63. Departmental Seminar, Department of Textile Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, October 2000.

62. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 2000,

61. Invited Lecture, ExxonMobil Company, Annandale, New Jersey, July 2000.

59. Invited Lecture, National Research Council of Solid State Physics, Gaithersburg, Maryland, July 2000.

60. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Polymer Physics, New London, Connecticut, July, 2000.

58. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Polymers (East), New London, Connecticut, June 2000.

57. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, March 2000.

56. Invited Lecture, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey, November 1999.

55. Invited Lecture, Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan, November 1999.

54. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baten Rouge, November 1999.

53. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 1999.

52. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, October 1999.

51. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, September 1999.

50. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, August 1999.

49. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New Orleans, August 1999.

48. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Chemistry of Supramolecules and Assemblies, August 1999.

47. Invited Lecture, Gordon Research Conference, Elastomers, July 1999.

46. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, May 1999

45. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Rhode Island, February 1999.

44. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, April 1999.

43. Invited Lecture, Annual Meeting of the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society, April 1999.

42. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, March 1999.

41. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, City College of New York, September 1998.

40. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, October 1998.

39. Invited Lecture, Meeting on Unifying Principles for Engineering Soft Materials, Risø National Laboratory, Denmark, June 1999.

38. Invited Lecture, Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories, Clinton, New Jersey, April 1998.

37. Invited Lecture, American Chemical Society, Division of Polymer Materials Science and Engineering, Dallas, March 1998.

36. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, February 1998.

35. Invited Lecture, Goodyear Tire Company, Akron, Ohio, February 1998.

34. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 1998.

33. Invited Lecture, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, December 1997.

32. Invited Lecture, Royal Society-Unilever Forum on Structure and Dynamics of Materials in the Mesoscopic Domain, National Chemical Society, India, December 1997.

32. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, November 1997.

31. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, October 1997.

30. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, October 1997.

29. Departmental Seminar, Department of Macromolecular Science, Case Western Reserve University, September 1997.

28. Invited Lecture, Cold Neutron Research Center, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, September 1997.

27. Invited Lecture, International Conference on Neutron Scattering, Toronto, August 1997.

26. Invited Lecture, Exxon Chemical Company, Baytown, Texas, June 1997.

25. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, April 1997.

24. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, April 1997.

23. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 1997.

22. Invited Lecture, National Meeting of the American Physical Society, Kansas City, March 1997.

21. Invited Lecture, National Meeting of the Materials Research Society, Boston, December 1996.

20. Invited Lecture, Rubber Science Hall of Fame, lecture honoring the induction of G. Kraus to the Rubber Science Hall of Fame, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, November 1996.

19. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, May 1996.

18. Invited Lecture, Gordon Conference on Colloidal, Macromolecular and Polyelectrolyte Solutions, Ventura, California, February 1996.

17. Departmental Seminar, Department of Textile Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, January 1996.

16. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, November 1995.

15. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, November 1995.

14. Invited Lecture, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Yokkaichi, Japan, June 1995.

13. Invited Lecture, Faculty of Macromolecular Science, Kyoto University, Japan, June 1995.

12. Invited Lecture, Faculty of Macromolecular Science, Osaka University, Japan, June 1995.

11. Invited Lecture, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan, June 1995.

10. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, January 1995.

9. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara, January 1995.

8. Invited Lecture, Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, January 1995.

7. Invited Lecture, National Meeting of the American Physical Society, Division of Condensed Matter Physics, San Jose, California, March 1995.

6. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 1994.

5. Invited Lecture, 3M Company, St. Paul Minnesota, November 1994.

4. Departmental Seminar, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, October 1994.

3. Departmental Seminar, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, September 1994.

2. Invited Lecture, National meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, August 1993.

1. Departmental Seminar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, September 1992.