Gray Research Group News

7/15/2015 — Professor Gray named Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Congratulations to Professor Gray! More details here

6/19/2015 — Congratulations to Gray Group Ph.D. graduates

Congratulations to 2015 Ph.D. graduates Todd Eaton, Sarist Macksasitorn, Kevin Schwartzenberg, and Tiezheng Tong!

11/2/2014 — Tong presentation at the third SNO conference in Boston, MA

Tiezheng traveled to Boston, MA to present in the third Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization conference. His presentation entitled "Ecological consequences of nano-TiO2 in aquatic environments: from a single-ENM system to multi-ENMs systems".

6/26/2014 — Gray group will present at the 248th ACS National Meeting

The Gray group will travel to San Francisco, CA, to attend the 248th ACS National Meeting. Kimberly Gray will give the keynote talk “From water quality to nanotechnology to cities: Details and people matter” in the Women in Environmental Science and Engineering Symposium on 12 August 2014. Sarist will present about "Reexamining legacy PCB concentrations in Green Bay benthos: The effects of invasive species" on 10 August; Tiezheng will present about "Ecological consequences of nano-TiO2 released into aquatic systems: From a single-ENM system to multi-ENM systems" on 10 August; Kevin will present about "Titania supported manganese oxide nanocomposites for solar fuel production" on 13 August.

6/26/2014 — Prof. Gray will talk about climate change and natural preservation at Northwestern Law School

Kimberly Gray will participate in the Research Roundtable on Climate Change and Natural Preservation: Adaptation Litigation, Oceans, and other Topics sponsored by the Searle Center for legal and Regulatory Studies at Northwestern Law School, 17-18 July, 2014. She will give the talk, “Restoration of Coastal Wetlands and Marsh Systems as Adaptation to Climate Change.”

6/24/2014 — Prof. Gray presented at the 88th Colloid and Surface Science Symposium

Kimberly Gray attended the 88th Colloid and Surface Science Symposium at the University of Pennsylvaia in Philadelphia, PA and presented “Interactions of nanotitania at bacterial surfaces under environmental conditions” on 24 June 2014.

6/23/2014 — Gray group members participate in Kellogg summer program

Kevin, Sarist, Tiezheng and Todd are selected to participate in 2014 Management for Scientists and Engineers program, held by Kellogg School of Management. This program is a highly selective program that aims to equip promising doctoral students with the necessary business and leadership skills.

6/11/2014 — Read our new publication on nanoparticles interaction!

Tiezheng's paper "Chemical Interactions between Nano-ZnO and Nano-TiO2 in a Natural Aqueous Medium" is published by Environmental Science and Technology.

5/14/2014 — Prof. Gray gave an invited talk on sustainable cities in Italy

Kimberly Gray gave an invited talk on May 14, 2014 at the Energy, Cities and the Control of Complex Systems, Expert Workshop, 47th Session of International Seminars on Planetary Emergencies, May 12-14, 2014, Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily. The title of her talk was “Sustainable Cities: Coupling cycles of energy, water & land-use to reinvent the urban landscape.”

3/26/2014 — Gray group present on the Midwest Chapter SETAC Annual Meeting

Tiezheng and Sarist present on their work at the Midwest Chapter SETAC Annual Meeting, Chicago, 24-25 March. Tiezheng is also awarded as the runner-up of the Best Student Platform.

1/22/2014 — Prof. Gray gave a keynote talk on living cities in Chile

Kimberly Gray gave a keynote talk on January 22, 2014 at the first International Conference on Sustainable Urban Development sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), which is located at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile. The title of her talk was “Living Cities: The Sustainable Reinvention of Exploding Megacities and Shrinking, Post-industrial Cities.” Gray is also a member of the Science Advisory Committee of CEDEUS.

1/15/2014 — GEHE Students Graduate

Congratulations to the 2013 Master's students in the Global and Ecological Health Engineering Certificate Program, who have completed their reports and graduated. Kathleen Roberts worked on the growing water scarcity problems in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Eric Spooner and Lisa VanBladeren worked on designing and testing a field-based water quality kit and a solar water distillation system. Be sure to check out their final reports on the Teaching page.

11/18/2013 — Our new ES&T paper is among the most read article in November, 2013.

Our new publication "The effects of material morphology on the acute bacterial cytotoxicity of nano-TiO2" (Tong et al., ES&T, DOI: 10.1021/es403079h) is among the top 20 most read articles of ES&T in November, 2013 (based on ES&T database on Nov. 18th). This study revises the simple predictive relationship between the photoactivity and the phototoxicity of nano-TiO2, and suggests that the evaluation of nano-TiO2 phototoxicity encompasses a three-pronged approach, involving the intrinsic photoactivity, aggregation of nano-TiO2, and the nano-TiO2/bacteria surface interactions.

11/3/2013 — Read our new publications!

Our new publications: "The effects of material morphology on the acute bacterial cytotoxicity of nano-TiO2" (Tong et al., ES&T); "Quantifying accessible sites and reactivity on titania-silica (photo)catalysts: Refining TOF calculations” (Eaton, et al., Journal of Catalysis); and “Common freshwater bacteria vary in their responses to short-term exposure to nano-TiO2 in natural surface waters”, (Binh et al., Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology) are online.

11/3/2013 — Tong presentation at the second SNO conference in Santa Barbara, CA

Tiezheng traveled to Santa Barbara, CA to present in the second Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization conference. His presentation entitled "When “nano” meets “nano”: Effects of nano-TiO2/nano-ZnO interactions on nano-ZnO dissolution and photoactivity". He receives a student award from SNO that partially supports his travel.

10/27/2013 — Tong receives the Certificate of Merit Award from ACS

Tiezheng receives the Certificate of Merit Award from the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society for his recent presentation at the 246th ACS National Meeting. This Award recognizes members of the American Chemical Society that are making their first presentation at a national meeting in the Environmental Chemistry Division. His presentation was judged to be of high quality to the efforts of the Environmental Division to better understand and protect the environment.

9/12/2013 — Tong presentation at ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis, IN

Tiezheng traveled to Indianapolis, IN to present a talk in the division of Environmental Chemistry on the 246th ACS National Meeting. His presentation entitled "Ecotoxicological effects of nanostructured titania to bacteria: Mechanistic insights of regulating factors".

5/21/2013 — Tong presentation at Gordon Research Conference on environmental nanotechnology

Tiezheng Tong will travel to Stowe, VT in June to present a poster at the 2013 Gordon Research Conference on environmental nanotechnology, entitled "Potential toxicological effects of nanostructured titania on bacteria: Probing toxicity mechanism using high-throughput screening". He receives a Conference Travel Grant from Graduate School to attend this conference.

4/10/2013 — Tong receives ASCE Illinois Section EWRI Student Award

Tiezheng Tong has been awarded the 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Illinois Section EWRI Student Award. This award was established by the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the ASCE Illinois Section to honor the achievements of students who are pursuing either environmental engineering or water resources engineering as an area of specialization.

4/7/2013 — Gray Group presentations at 245th ACS National Meeting in New Orleans

Professor Gray and Kevin Schwartzenberg traveled to New Orleans in April to present at the 245th ACS National Meeting. Professor Gray presented a talk entitled "Key Features of TiO2 based nano-architectures for CO2 conversion" in the division of colloid and surface chemistry. Kevin Schwartzenberg presented "CO2 binding on titania nanostructures" in the division of energy and fuels.

1/21/2013 — Schwartzenberg receives ACS Graduate Student Award

Kevin Schwartzenberg has been awarded a 2013 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.