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Talking Points

Middle East expert David Mednicoff named lead investigator for $1 million research study

David Mednicoff, assistant professor of public policy and director of Middle Eastern Studies, has been awarded a $1.01 million grant to be principal investigator for interdisciplinary research on legal development and practices in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
 
The three-year project titled “The Rule of Law in Qatar: Comparative Insights and Policy Strategies,” has been funded by the Qatar National Research Fund.

Fulbright takes Alex Carter to Australia to study Aboriginal movement roots in Black Power

Alex Carter, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, has received a Fulbright award to study the political and cultural dialogue between the Black Power movement in the U.S. and aboriginal Australian activists in the 1970s.
 
Carter plans to examine the Black Panther Party of Australia and the National Black Theatre of Sydney, building on continuing investigations of cross-cultural theater and political collaboration.
 
“These cross-cultural and transnational connections between Afro Americans and Aboriginal Australians is a vital component of

Isenberg alumni to be honored at first Business Leadership Awards Dinner

The Isenberg School of Management will honor two of its notable alumni, Ben Cherington and Alex Ambroz, at the inaugural Business Leadership Awards Dinner on June 17 at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston.

Cherington, who is executive vice president/general manager of the Boston Red Sox, will be the evening’s principal honoree. Ambroz, an associate with J.P. Morgan Securities, will receive Isenberg’s Young Alumni Award.

A graduate of Isenberg’s Mark H.

Chemical engineers discover ‘ultraselective’ process to make valuable chemical from biomass

Chemical engineering researchers Wei Fan, Paul Dauenhauer and colleagues report this week that they’ve discovered a new chemical process to make p-xylene, an important ingredient of common plastics, at 90 percent yield from lignocellulosic biomass, the highest yield achieved to date. Details are in the current issue of Green Chemistry.
 
As Dauenhauer explains, the chemical industry currently produces p-xylene from more expensive petroleum, while the new process will make the same chemical from lower-cost, renewable biomass.

Chemical engineer Paul Dauenhauer receives DuPont Young Professor award

Chemical engineer Paul Dauenhauer is one of only 14 scientists worldwide to receive recognition for scientific innovation from the 2013 DuPont Young Professors Program, the company recently announced. He will receive $75,000 over three years to advance progress on his discovery of a process for making renewable plastics and chemicals from biomass.
 
Specifically, Dauenhauer and colleagues use inorganic catalysts such as low-cost zeolites in high-temperature processes for converting wood, grasses and agricultural byproducts into monomers to make plastics and chemicals through rapid,

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