Characterization and engineering of self-assembly, dispersion, and emulsification 

(collaborators have included Eric Morrison, Hanseung Lee, Joe Zasadzinski. Vijay John (Tulane), Srini Raghavan (Maryland), Geoff Bothun (Rhode Island), Lee Penn, David Morse)

Our group has been active in several projects that capitalize on complementary microscopy techniques to understand the formation of micelles and nano-sized dispersions in surfactant systems. These projects typically involve collaboration with other faculty and with industrial collaborators who participate in a nonproprietary way through our NMP program. For instance, we have used cryogenic transmission and scanning electron to explain the nanostructure formation process steps, and sensitivity to process variables, in the formation of certain nanoparticles and in the formation of long-lived nanoscale oil-in-water dispersions. Our goal is to develop principles for the engineering of systems that develop nanostructures.

Our group has also studied dispersion conditions to help distinguish what are more effective dispersants. Our collaborative work to date has shed light on why it is that a specific mix of surfactants is particularly effective. Moreover, results to date suggest that microstructures (e.g., micelles, and possibly vesicles) can influence the dispersion process, both by stabilizing surfactants that would not otherwise penetrate the oil and also by influencing rates of transport to the newly-created surface during the dispersion process. 

With Dave Morse, an additional goal is to understand the rate limiting mechanisms when generating new surfactant-laden interfaces, such as in dispersion processes.  Molecular theory and simulation provide insights into the role of micelles in either accelerating or slowing the arrival of surfactant at new interface.

 

Characterization and Curing of coatings and modified surfaces

(collaborators have included Lorraine Francis and Greg Haugstad; and industrial fellows with IPrime member companies (including Boston Scientific, Ecolab, and Donaldson))

With Greg Haugstad and several Industrial Fellows in IPRIME,  projects have focused on curing and nanostructured and chemically treated surfaces, typically in wet or humid environments and at the micro- and nano- scale.  

With Lorraine Francis, several graduate students have investigated coating/curing systems with the goal of limiting stress development and micromolding pattern integrity while improving cure rate.

With Lee Penn, we have used analytical TEM to identify nanostructural reasons for rate limitations to solid/fluid reactions important for removing sulfates from mining waste processing, for the environmental protection of aquifers streams and lakes.

 

Sustainable, distributed, small scale ammonia production enabled by high temperature solid absorbent systems (collaborators have included Cussler, Dauenhauer, Reese, Daoutidis. Zhang, Malmali (TexasTech))

Our group has explored small-scale ammonia process with a novel design that uses a high temperature ammonia-selective absorbent at near-catalytic conditions to simplify the process. This absorbent captures and releases ammonia at temperatures and pressures like those used in conventional ammonia synthesis. With this development, we hope to assist synthesis of fertilizer at the farm and agricultural co-op level so that carbon footprint, transport limitations, and renewable energy sources can be addressed.  

With several collaborative projects supported by the Department of Energy and the State of Minnesota, ongoing work is exploring the use of ammonia absorbents in other applications, including storage.

Education

• B.S., Chemical Engineering, Tulane University, 1983
• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 1987

Honors and Awards

• 2023 UMN College of Science and Engineering – Taylor award for distinguished service
• 2022 Nominee, ABET Engineering Accreditation Council Exec Comm
• 2021 Plenary lecture, Interfacial Phenomena, AIChE 2021 Annual Meeting
• 2020 Nominee, AIChE Fellows Council
• 2020 Nominee, AIChE Board of Directors
• 2019 Appointed, AIChE Career and Education Operating Council
• 2018, 2019 UMN Center for Educational Innovation recognition certificates (student-nominated)
• 2018 Elected AIChE Fellow
• 2018 Elected Commissioner, ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission
• 2017 Nominee, AIChE Board of Directors
• 2017 Outstanding Student Group Advisor, UMN College of Science and Engineering (for TauBeta Pi chapter)
• 2012 Appointed, AIChE Technology Operating Council
• 2009 Institute Visiting Professor, IIT Bombay
• 2009 Visiting Fellow, European Union Int’l Program in Materials for Environmental Sensors, University of Bologna
• 2009 Nominated by the UMN College of Science and Engineering for University-wide teaching award (Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award)
• 2006 John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
• 2005 UMN AIChE student chapter, certificate for “most helpful professor”
• 2001 Institute of Technology Professor Award for Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
• 2000 Institute of Technology Student Board, Best Professor, CEMS
• 2000 AIChE Student Chapter, Best Professor
• 2000 University of Minnesota Mortarboard Professor and Teaching Award
• 1999 Supercomputing Institute Fellowship
• 1998 UMN Hubert Humphrey Institute on Public Policy - Policy Fellow
• 1992 Recognition as a "Best Young Chemical Engineer", Twin Cities AIChE
• 1992, 1993 Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award
• 1991, 1992 Recognized as a "Best Professor in Chem. Eng. and Mat. Sci." by UMN Institute of Technology Student Board
• 1990 NSF Presidential Young Investigator University of Minnesota Nominee for Packard Fellowship
  Harold Levi Award, Tulane University Distinguished Engineering Alumnus.

Service and broader impacts

Alon has held a range of national positions the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and he has been elected AIChE Fellow.  He has served each of the three Operating Councils or their committees — Chemical Engineering Technology (CTOC), Career and Education (CEOC), and Societal Impact (SIOC). He has served on the CEOC and as Secretary of its committee for Education and Accreditation. He has served as CTOC chair.  He has served as liaison to the SIOC and has chaired its committee for LGBTQ+&Allies in AIChE.  He has served as the Annual Meeting Program Chair; on the Executive Board of the Program Comm.; in various leadership roles in the Materials Engineering and Sciences Div.  Alon has also served in the American Society for Engineering Education, including activities of its Commission on DEI.  He has also served as evaluator, team chair, and commissioner for the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

At the University of Minnesota, Alon has chaired university-wide committees (education policy and graduate fellowships), and he has served on many others related to research resources (supercomputing, shared-instrumentation), education and community (advising, curriculum requirements, diversity concerns), and consultative to the College of Science and Engineering and to the Provost and to University Senate. He currently serves as chair of the University Senate Committee on Committees.  

Within his department and college, his service has included: director of ChEn undergraduate studies, Tau Beta Pi chapter advisor, oSTEM chapter advisor.  He is currently serving on the CSE D&I Alliance Education action team, on the graduate admissions committee, as co-chair of the CEMS department DEI Working Group, and as program coordinator for the Nanostructural Materials and Processes (NMP) of IPRIME.  

Selected Publications

• C. Emmanuel Onuoha, Matthew Kale, Mahdi Malmali, Paul Dauenhauer, Alon McCormick  “Improving Absorbent-Enhanced Ammonia Separation For Efficient Small Scale Ammonia Synthesis”. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 63, 13, 5608–56172024, DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.3c04351
• Spencer D. Bingham, Alon V. McCormick, and R. Lee Penn.  Sulfide Immobilization: Investigating the Impact of a Protective Sulfide-Bearing Layer Formed by Siderite (FeCO3)    ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 2023 7 (6), 1247-1257 DOI: 10.1021/acsearthspacechem.3c00080
• JA Mysona, AV McCormick, DC Morse, Diffusion of surfactant from a micellar solution to a bare interface. 1. Absorbing boundary, J Coll Int Sci, 2023. in press.  DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.016
• Mkam Tsengam, IK; Omarova, M; Kelley, E; McCormick, A; Bothun, G; Raghavan, S; John, V, Transformation of Lipid Vesicles into Micelles by Adding Nonionic Surfactants: Elucidating the Structural Pathway and the Intermediate Structures, J Phys Chem B, 2022. 126.11 (2022): 2208-2216.  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c09685
• Mysona, JA; McCormick, AV; Morse, DC, Nonlinear dynamics in micellar surfactant solutions. II. Diffusion, Phys. Rev. E, 105(3) 034603, 2022. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.105.034603.
• Mysona, JA; McCormick, AV; Morse, DC, Nonlinear dynamics in micellar surfactant solutions. I. Kinetics, Phys. Rev. E, 105(3) 034602, 2022. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.105.034602.
• Eric D. Morrison, Molin Guo, João Maia, Doug Nelson, Suresh Swaminathan, Karunya K. Kandimalla, Hanseung Lee, Joseph Zasadzinski, Alon McCormick, James Marti, Brian Garhofer, “Dense nanolipid fluid dispersions comprising ibuprofen: Single step extrusion process and drug properties,” International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Volume 598, 2021, 120289, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.120289.
• Using Microemulsion Phase Behavior as a Predictive Model for Lecithin–Tween 80 Marine Oil Dispersant Effectiveness, Louis G. Corcoran, Brian A. Saldana Almaraz, Kamilah Y. Amen, Geoffrey D. Bothun, Srinivasa R. Raghavan, Vijay T. John, Alon V. McCormick, and R. Lee Penn, Langmuir 2021 37 (27), 8115-8128 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00651 
• Desorption in Ammonia Manufacture from Stranded Wind Energy, Deepak K. Ojha, Matthew J. Kale, Paul J. Dauenhauer, Alon McCormick, and E. L. Cussler, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2020 8 (41), 15475-15483 DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c03154. 
• Optimizing Ammonia Separation via Reactive Absorption for Sustainable Ammonia Synthesis. Matthew J. Kale, Deepak K. Ojha, Sayandeep Biswas, Joshua I. Militti, Alon V. McCormick, Jeffrey H. Schott, Paul J. Dauenhauer, and E. L. Cussler, ACS Applied Energy Materials 2020 3 (3), 2576-2584 DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.9b02278.
• Mysona, J. A.; McCormick, A. V.; Morse, D. C., Simulation of diblock copolymer surfactants. III. Equilibrium interfacial adsorption, Physical Review E, 2020 - APS 102, 022605.  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.102.022605
• Mysona, J. A.; McCormick, A. V.; Morse, D. C., Mechanism of Micelle Birth and Death. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2019, 123 (3). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.038003. 
• Mysona, J. A.; McCormick, A. V.; Morse, D. C., “Simulation of Diblock Copolymer Surfactants. I. Micelle Free Energies”. Phys. Rev. E 2019, 100 (1). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.100.012602. 
• Mysona, J. A.; McCormick, A. V.; Morse, D. C., Simulation of Diblock Copolymer Surfactants. II. Micelle Kinetics. Phys. Rev. E 2019, 100 (1). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.100.012603. 
• Ojha, D. K.; Kale, M. J.; McCormick, A. V.; Reese, M.; Malmali, M.; Dauenhauer, P.; Cussler, E., “Integrated Ammonia Synthesis and Separation”. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7 (23), 18785-18792. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b03050
• Omarova, M.; Swientoniewski, L. T.; Tsengam, I. K. M.; Blake, D. A.; John, V.; McCormick, A.; Bothun, G. D.; Raghavan, S. R.; Bose, A., “Biofilm Formation by Hydrocarbon-Degrading Marine Bacteria and Its Effects on Oil Dispersion”. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7 (17), 14490-14499. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01923.
• Fernandes JC, Agrawal NR, Aljirafi FO, Bothun GD, McCormick AV, John VT, Raghavan SR “Does the Solvent in a Dispersant Impact the Efficiency of Crude-Oil Dispersion”. Langmuir. 2019 Dec 5. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b02184.
• "Consortium for the Molecular Engineering of Dispersant Systems (C-Meds)." A. McCormick; V. John. Mar. Technol. Soc. J., 2018, 52(6):95-98. DOI: 10.4031/mtsj.52.6.12.
• “Cryo-SEM: Revealing Microstructure Development in Drying Coatings,” Kyle Price, Alon V. McCormick, and Lorraine F. Francis.  Chapter 6 in Protective Coatings: Film Formation and Properties, M. Wen, K. Dusek (eds.). Springer, New York (2017), pp. 137-152.  DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51627-1_6