Eighth Annual Energy & Resources Conference
Monday, September 15th - Con Edison Building, NYC

Biographies

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Advances in Engineering Materials

Bio: Christopher J. Durning, Columbia University, New York, NY.

Presentation - Fabrication and Performance of Nano-Particle Surface-Modified, Thin Film Composite Membranes.

Christopher J. Durning is a Full Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City with more than 30 years of service to that institution. He was born and raised in the Hudson Valley. He earned the B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in 1978 in and the Ph.D. from Princeton in 1982. He joined the Faculty at Columbia in 1982.

His research focuses on exploiting "soft" materials in a variety of applications through their manipulation at the nano-scale. He has published about 80 peer reviewed technical articles in this area. He and his team are currently working to develop new ways to generate nano-structures via supra-molecular chemistry and self-assembly, and to exploit established self-assembly methods, to provide new materials that help address compelling separations problems.

A current project is developing better filtration membranes for the both the re-use of wastewater and the efficient desalination of brackish water. Durning and his team are modifying the surfaces of micro/ultra-filtration membranes with ultra-thin polymer/nanoparticle coatings to enable nanofiltration (NF) and/or reverse osmosis (RO) performance via layer-by-layer deposition, a directed self assembly process. The aim is to contribute relevant technology for the impending “water crisis.”


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