Peter M. Tessier, the Richard Baruch M.D. Career Development Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, has been awarded the 2016 Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award by the editors of the Biochemical Engineering Journal, in cooperation with the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences.

Launched in 2009, the annual award recognizes outstanding excellence in research and practice contributed to the field of biochemical engineering by a young community member. Award winners receive a cash prize of $2,500 and present their paper at the elected conference.

Tessier delivered the opening plenary lecture, “Improved methods for designing, evolving and selecting antibodies,” at the European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Sciences in Dublin, Ireland, on September 11.

Tessier’s research focuses on designing, developing, and optimizing a class of large therapeutic proteins (antibodies) that hold great potential for detecting and treating human disorders ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.

A Rensselaer student team from the Manufacturing Innovation and Learning Lab (MILL) took second place in the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)/Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Student Manufacturing Design Competition held in June at the NAMRC 44/MSEC 2016 conference in Blacksburg, Virginia. Morgan Schweitzer ’16, mechanical engineering, represented the team, which took Rensselaer’s two-semester course Manufacturing Processes and Systems (MPS) I and II in the MILL.

In the fall semester, the student team designed a manufacturing system, complete with technical documents, to produce the “DeskBuddy,” an RPI-themed desk organizer. In the spring semester, the team focused on optimizing the part and tooling designs within the manufacturing system to mass produce 400 units.

The DeskBuddy is composed of 12 different manufactured and purchased components, including corkboard to hold pushpins, magnetic components to hold paperclips, and a clock, using manufacturing processes such as plastic injection molding, water-jet cutting, deep drawing, CNC machining, shearing, ultrasonic welding, heat staking, and robotic assembly to produce and assemble the components. During the entire process, the team documented the designs, calculations, and procedures required to manufacture 400 DeskBuddy units in a Technical Data Package, which is to be made available as a reference for future MPS teams.

A second team from Rensselaer, the MILL Caribiner team, represented by doctoral student James Garofalo, was selected as one of the eight competition finalists.

Savoy Magazine named Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson among the “Power 300: 2016 Most Influential Black Corporate Directors” in its summer issue. In its listing, the magazine recognized several highlights of President Jackson’s career, including her tenure as chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, by which she became the first woman and first African American to hold that position. Also, she serves as co-chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board. In addition to her corporate board memberships, Jackson is vice chair of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and serves on the boards of the World Economic Forum USA, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution.