Melanie A. McNeil, Ph.D.

McNeil

Professor

Email

Preferred: melanie.mcneil@sjsu.edu

Telephone

Preferred: (408) 924-3873

Office

ENGR 385I

Education

  • B.S Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara (1986)
  • M.S Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (1986)
  • Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (1990)

Bio

Academic Appointments

  • Professor (8/99 - Present), San José State University
  • Associate Professor (8/94 - 8/99), San José State University
  • Assistant Professor (8/90 - 8/94), San José State University

Industrial Appointments

  • Chemist (U.S.A. Petrochem Corporation, Ventura, California) (2/80 – 9/83)

Performed quality control tests on refined petroleum products and analyzed wastewater and other refinery waste materials.

Honors and Awards

  • SJSU COE McCoy Family Faculty Excellence in Service Award (5/11)
  • N. California American Institute of Chemical Engineers Teaching Excellence Award (4/96)
  • Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award (4/95)

Teaching Interests  

  • Chemical kinetics.
  • Catalysis and reactor design.
  • Biochemical engineering.
  • Heat transfer.
  • Environmental engineering.
  • Safety, ethics, statistics, undergraduate chemical engineering lab.  

Research and Scholarly Interests

  • Enzyme kinetics.
  • Membrane separation processes.
  • Energy/water/food nexus.
  • Thin film applications for drug delivery and photovoltaics.

Selected Publications

  1. Duque, R., Shan, Y., Joya, M., Ravichandran, N., Asi, B., Mobed-Miremadi, M., Mulrooney, S., McNeil, M. and Prakash, S., Effect of Artificial Cell Miniaturization on Urea Degradation by Immobilized E. coli DH5α (pKAU17), Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, (2018), DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2018.1469026.
  2. Khilko, Y., Weyman, P.D., Glass, J.I., Adams, M.D., McNeil, M.A., and Griffin, P.B., “DNA Assembly With Error Correction on a Droplet Digital Microfluidics Platform”, BMC Biotechnol., 18: 37, (2018).
  3. Jeff Gelb, Donal Finegan, Melanie McNeil, Dan Brett, and Paul Shearing, “A 4D Framework for Probing Structure-Property Relationships in Lithium Ion Batteries”, Proc. Microscopy & Microanalysis, 23(S1), pages 2102-2103, (2017).
  4. Maryam Mobed-Miremadi, Sabra Djomehri, Mallika Keralapura, and Melanie McNeil, “Fickian-Based Empirical Approach for Diffusivity Determination in Hollow Alginate-Based Microfibers Using 2D Fluorescence Microscopy and Comparison with Theoretical Predictions”, Materials,7(12), pages, 7670-7688 (2014).
  5. Young-Hye La,  Jacquana Diep, Radwan Al-Rasheed, Dolores Miller, LeslieKrupp, Geoffrey M. Geise, Ankit Vora, Blake Davis, Majed Nassar, Benny D. Freeman, Melanie McNeil , Geraud Dubois, “Enhanced Desalination Performance of Polyamide Bi-layer Membranes Prepared by Sequential Interfacial Polymerization”, J. Membrane Science, 437, pages 33-39 (2013).
  6. Eric A. Appel, Victor Y. Lee, Timothy T. Nguyen, Melanie McNeil, Frederik Nederberg, James L. Hedrick, William C. Swope, Julia E. Rice, Robert D. Miller, Joséph Slu, “Toward Biodegradable Nanogel Star Polymers via Organocatalytic ROP”, Chem. Commun., 48 (49), 6163 – 6165, (2012).
  7. Joséph Sly, Victor Y. Lee, Karen Havenstrite, Melia Tjio, Melanie McNeil, Helen M. Blau, Robert D. Miller, "Nanogel Star Polymer Architectures: A Nanoparticle Platform for Modular Programmable Macromolecular Self-assembly, Intercellular Transport and Dual Mode Cargo Delivery, Adv. Materials, Volume 23, Issue 39, pages 4509–4515, (2011).
  8. Kazuki Fukushima, Olivier Coulembier, Julien M. Lecuyer, Hamid A. Almegren, Abdullah M. Alabdulrahman, Fares D. Alsewailem, Melanie A. McNeil, Philippe Dubois, Robert M. Waymouth, Hans W. Horn, Julia E. Rice, and James L. Hedrick, “Organocatalytic Depolymerization of Poly(ethylene terephthalate)”, Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry. Volume 49, Issue 5, pages 1273–1281, 1 March 2011.
  9. Tjio, Melia; Lee, Victor Y.; Kellock, Andrew J.; Frommer, Jane E.; Risk, William P.; Jefferson, Michael; McNeil, Melanie; Miller, Robert D.; Sly, Joséph. Star polymer templated electroless deposition of plasmonic metal nanostructures, Abstracts of Papers, 239th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States, March 21-25, 2010 (2010).
  10. Nuno, Hector; Lee, Victor Y.; Shah, Shimul K.; Krupp, Leslie; McNeil, Melanie; Miller, Robert D.; Sly, Joséph. Star polymer templated, dye occluded, functionalized silica nanoparticles for optoelectronic applications”, Abstracts of Papers, 239th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States, March 21-25, 2010 (2010).
  11. Duhamel, P., Bonifacio, C., Chang, L., McNeil, M., Magbitang, T., Frommer, J., Lee,V.., Park, O., Pl., Jefferson, M., Risk, W., Kim,, H., Sly, J., and  Miller, R., “Nanostructuring Porous Evanescent Wave  Biosensors,” Proceedings of the 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2008).
  12. Tjio, M.; Lee, V.; Kellock, A.; Frommer, J.; Risk, W.; Jefferson, C.; McNeil, M.; Miller, R.; Sly, J.; “Star polymer templated electroless deposition of plasmonic metal nanostructures” PMSE Preprints (2010).
  13. Nuno, H.; Lee, V.; Shah, S.; Krupp, L.; McNeil, M.; Miller, R.; Sly, J.; “Star polymer templated, dye occluded, functionalized silica nanoparticles for optoelectronic applications.” Polymer Preprints (2010).
  14. Sly, J.; Bonifacio, C. S.; Chang, L.; Glab, K. L.; Lee, V. Y.; McNeil, M.; Jefferson, C. M.; Frommer, J. E.; Risk, W. P.; Miller, R. D.; “Reaching for the Stars:Layered Polyvalent Self-Assembly of Hyperbranched Pigment Arrays”. PMSE Preprints, 97, 200-201, 2007.
  15. Scheffler, L. Q. Ye and M. McNeil, Electrodeposition of Bismuth Telluride Nanowires for Thermoelectric Applications: Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties, Proceedings of Annual Meeting of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, November (2006).
  16. Mao, H.T. Ng, P. Nguyen, M. McNeil, and M. Meyyappan, "Silicon Nanowire Synthesis by a Vapor-Liquid-Solid Approach," J. Nanosci. Nanotech. 2005, 5, pp. 831-835.
  17. McNeil, M., Stoynova, L., Rech, S., Building Molecular Biology Laboratory Skills in Chemical Engineering Students”, Chemical Engineering Education, Summer 2005.
  18. Komives, C., Rech, S., McNeil, M., Laboratory Experiment on Gene Subcloning for Chemical Engineering Students, Chemical Engineering Education, Summer 2004, pp. 212 - 221.
  19. Nguyen, H.T. Ng, J. Kong, A.M. Cassell, R. Quinn, J. Li, J. Han, M. McNeil, and M. Meyyappan, Epitaxial Directional Growth of Indium-Doped Tin Oxide Nanowire Arrays, Nano Lett. 2003, 3(7), 925-928.
  20. Wander, D. S., Yang, F., McNeil, M and Lustig, B. “Scoring DNA sequence alignment using energetics of hybridization” Proceedings of Annual Meeting of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, San Francisco, 2003.
  21. M.A. McNeil, J. Boothby, and P. Stacks, Development of a Multi-Disciplinary Biochemical Engineering Laboratory, Speaker at the1996 American Society for Engineering Education Summer National Meeting, Washington D.C.
  22. D.A. Cacciatore, and M.A. McNeil, Applications of Biological Treatment to Industrial Waste, BioCycle, October 1995, pp. 61-64.

Recent Funding

  1. 1991: PI $44,496 NSF Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant for development of a Hazardous Waste Management Laboratory.
  2. 1992: PI  $75,000/year research grant by Dynacraft Corp. for Alloy Wettability Study.
  3. 1993: Awarded $75,600 research grant by NSF subcontract for Bioremediation with co-PI Dr. Rhea Williamson.
  4. 1995: PI with two co-PIs (Drs. Pam Stack and John Boothby) $25,000 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Grant, Development of a Biochemical Engineering Laboratory.
  5. 1995: PI $45,000 research grant by EPRI to study corrosion in boiling water reactors.
  6. 1997: PI $45,000 by EPRI to continue study of corrosion in boiling water reactors.
  7. 1998: PI with 2 co-PIs $230,000 as lead PI from Fund for Improvement of PostSecondary Education for Development of an Industry-driven Environmental Health and Safety Degree Program.
  8. 1998: PI $54,000 by EPRI to continue study of corrosion in boiling water reactors.
  9. 1999: PI $54,000 by EPRI to expand study of corrosion in boiling water reactors.
  10. 1999: Director of  $100,000 grant from City of San José Environmental Services Division.
  11. 2001: Co-PI with one other PI (Dr. Claire Komives) $ 175,000 from NSF CCLI Program for Acquisition of Equipment for a Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory.  NSF #0088653
  12. 2001: Co-PI with one other PI (Dr. Claire Komives) $ 26,000 California Workforce Initiative Grant.
  13. 2004: PI - $15,000 research grant from iSagacity to study corrosion in a high temperature, high pressure, ultra-low contaminant autoclave system.
  14. 2005: Co-PI (with five others, PI was Dr. Emily Allen) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) contract, $500,000.
  15. 2006: Key Personnel on $910,000 contract from Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA).
  16. 2007: Key Personnel on $930,000 contract from Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA).
  17. 2008: Key Personnel on $1,00,000 contract from Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA).
  18. 2010: PI with two co-PIs (Drs. Maryam Mobed-Miremadi and Clever Ouverney) $14,379 from the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) Programmatic Development Grant for “Implementation of Introduction to Bioengineering Laboratory Course”.
  19. 2011: PI with two co-PIs (Drs. Maryam Mobed-Miremadi and Satya Prakash) $21,700 CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) Joint Venture Program: “Bio-Printing of Mammalian Cells”.
  20. 2017: SJSU Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering 2017 Research Professor Grant, $39,000.  Synthesis and Characterization of Enzymes contained in Polymer Membranes for Sustainable Wastewater Purification.