Ralm Ricarte, assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Florida State University, has been honored with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in recognition of his work on; “Vitrimer gels as a platform for homogenous and meso/nanostructured networks” .

The potential applications of his work include energy storage, separations, medicine, consumer products and advanced performance materials. 

Jamel Ali, assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Florida A&M University (FAMU), has received two prestigious early career awards: a 2022 Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the 2022 American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award.

In an effort to stamp out food insecurity, a group of multidisciplinary students at Florida State University (FSU) decided to tackle the problem locally in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine, iGEM, a collegiate competition held in fall 2021.

First-generation college graduate Luis E. Blanco is from Placetas, Villa Clara, Cuba. Blanco graduated from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical and biomedical engineering. He now heads his own engineering-based startup, Diatech Diabetes, Inc. 

Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Virginia Tech have received an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help more African American students obtain graduate degrees in Chemistry and related fields.

“We want to increase the number of underresourced minority students who obtain graduate degrees by building a sustainable platform to support and retain our students throughout the masters and Ph.D. stages,” Natalie Arnett, the principal investigator for this initiative, said.

Undergraduate Student Spotlight

Nicholas DiRoberto is a senior at Florida State University studying biomedical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Originally from Hollywood, Florida, the eclectic student plans to pursue a law degree after graduating. He’s currently researching genetic engineering, tissue engineering and biomedical devices.