Sustainable Soft Materials
Updates
Join us at BCCE 2024 for presentations of live demos and chemical education activties.
Congrats to Lucia on making it to ISEF!
2024 New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF): 1st Place in Earth and Environmental Sciences and (ISEF) Finalist. 2024 Regeneron Science Research Talent Search: Nationwide Top 300 Scholar. 2024 Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) Regional: 1st Place Environmental Science. 2024 Upstate Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Speaker. 2024 Regeneron Westchester Science & Engineering Fair (WESEF): 2nd Place in Environmental Science.
People
Dr. Julian R. Silverman is an Assistant Professor at The Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the State University of New York in Chelsea, New York. He is a Haas Fellow at the Science History Institute and a Module Developer for the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute. He works with Harrison High School's Research Program and is a member of the New York Sunworks Associate Board.
Dr. Silverman received his Bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry with Honors from McGill University in Montréal, and an M. Phil. and Ph. D. at the C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center conducting his research on conjugating lipids and carbohydrates to create soft materials at the City College of New York. His postdoctoral work at the University of Kansas’ Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis focused on valorizing waste lignin with support from industry sponsors. He previously taught in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Manhattan College in the Bronx, and served as the Director for the Center for Urban Resilience and Environmental Sustainability.
His teaching and research at the Fashion Institute of Technology focuses on supporting quality undergraduate research projects, identifying and transforming local waste biomass into functional soft materials, and conducting life-cycle assessments to further link chemistry, environmental science and practical action to address sustainability in the lab, at home, and in the community. Beyond experimental work, he partners with experts across the chemical education community to develop open-access curricular materials and assessments for students and educators to contextualize chemistry and environmental science.
Current Students:
Lucia Lammers - Harrison High School
Previous Students:
Manhattan College
Christian Machado - Environmental Science - Trinity School, NYC
Ashley Gambardella - Environmental Science
Melanie Yunga - Biology - Memorial Sloan Kettering, NYC
Mia Serrano - Chemistry - Protameen Chemicals
Mai Blaustein - Senior - Mamaroneck High School
Rachel Kindler -Mamaroneck High School
University of Kansas - KU IDEA Program
Mariam Balogun - Chemical Engineering - University of Texas Austin
Michael Brizes - Chemical Engineering - The Ohio State University
City College of New York
Sahista Kapadia - Chemistry
Isirikoufoulou Sibabi - Chemistry
Bivas Sarker - Chemistry
Rajah Singh - REU Program
Melanie Yunga and Nicholas Malgioglio presenting at the Jasper Summer Scholars Research Symposium.
Publications
1) Gambardella, A.; Machado, C.; Yunga, M.; Diaz, J.; Serrano, M.; Silverman, J. R. Formulation of Biobased Soap Gels from Waste-Derived Feedstocks. RSC Sustain. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SU00130F.
2) D’eon, J.; Silverman, J. R. Using Systems Thinking to Connect Green Principles and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in a Reaction Stoichiometry Module. Green Chem. Lett. Rev. 2023, 16 (1), 2185109. https://doi.org/10.1080/17518253.2023.2185109.
3) Machado, C.; Oliynyk, A. O.; Silverman, J. R., Tie-Dyeing with Foraged Acorns and Rust: A Workshop Connecting Green Chemistry and Environmental Science. J. Chem. Educ. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00086
4) Pinto, A. H.; Cho, D. R.; Oliynyk, A. O.; Silverman, J. R., Green Chemistry Applied to Transition Metal Chalcogenides through Synthesis, Design of Experiments, Life Cycle Assessment, and Machine Learning. In Green Chemistry - New Perspectives; Kuram, B., Debut, A., Eds.; IntechOpen: Rijeka, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104432
5) Silverman, J.R., Exploring Sustainability Metrics in General Chemistry Using the Intensive and Extensive Properties of Matter. J. Chem. Ed. (2021) 98, 9, 2741–2745. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00113
6) Silverman, J. R.; Danby, A. M.; Subramaniam, B. Facile Prepolymer Formation with Ozone-Pretreated Grass Lignin by In Situ Grafting of Endogenous Aromatics. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. (2020), 8, 46, 17001-17007. 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c03811
7) Bode, C., Welch, W. G., Abeita, S., Silverman, J. R. Versatile 3D Printed Colorimetry Toolkits. Science Teacher February vol. 87, no. 6, February 2020 p. 20 – 22 link to digital copy
8) Silverman, J. R., Hudson, R., Evaluating Feedstocks, Processes, and Products in the Teaching Laboratory: A Framework for Students to Critically Evaluate and Innovate Green Chemistry Experiments, J. Chem. Ed. (2019) 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00292
9) Silverman, J. R., Bode, C., Subramaniam, B., Open-Access Chemical Assessments for Students and Educators: A Case Study for Evaluating Aspirin Synthesis in Technology Integration in Chemistry Education and Research (TICER), T. Gupta, R. E. Belford, Eds. (American Chemical Society, 2019), chap. 8, pp. 119-127. 10.1021/bk-2019-1318
10) Silverman, J. R., Danby, A. M., Subramaniam, B., Intensified Ozonolysis of Lignin in a Spray Reactor: Product Yields and Structural Insights, Reaction Chemistry and Engineering (2019), 4, 1421-1430 10.1039/c9re00098d
11) John, G., Nagarajan, S., Vemula, P. K., Silverman, J. R., Pillai, C. K. S.; Natural Monomers: A mine for functional and sustainable materials – Occurrence, chemical modification, and polymerization. Progress in Polymer Science (2019) 92 158-209 10.1016/j.profpolymsci.2019.02.008
12) Panettieri, S., Silverman, J. R., Nifosi, R., Signore, G., Bizzarri, R., John, G., Unique Photophysical Behavior of Coumarin-based Viscosity Probes During Molecular Self-Assembly. ACS Omega (2019) 4 (3), 4785-4792 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b02357
13) Silverman, J. Open-Access Life Cycle Assessments: ExceLCA for Undergraduate Students. KU Scholar Works, https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/27534 (2018)
14) Silverman, J.R., Zhang, Q., Pramanik, N., Samateh, M., Shaffer, T., Sagiri, S., Grimm., J., John, G., Radiation Responsive Esculin-derived Molecular Gels as Signal Enhancers for Optical Imaging. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces (2017) 9 (49) 43107-43204 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b15548
15) Silverman, J. R., “Sustainable Molecular Gelators: Beta-D-Glucoside Derived Structuring Agents and Their Material Application” (2016). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1468
16) Silverman J.R., Biobased Organic Chemistry Laboratories as Sustainable Experiment Alternatives. J. Chem. Educ. (2016) 1679-1681 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00706
17) Silverman, J.R., John, G., Biobased Fat Mimicking Molecular Structuring Agents for Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) and Other Edible Oils. J. Agric. Food Chem. (2015) 10536-10542 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5b04236
18) Silverman, J. R.; Samateh, M.; John, G. Functional Self-Assembled Lipidic Systems Derived from Renewable Resources. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. (2015) 47-55 DOI: 10.1002/ejlt.201500198
19) Hwang, H.; Jadhav, S.; Silverman, J., John, G.: Sweet and Sustainable, Biorefinery concept: a powerhouse for sustainable future and molecular design. J. Chem. Educ. (2014) 1563-1568. DOI: 10.1021/ed3007764
20) Jung, J. H., Lee, J. H., Silverman, J. R., & John, G. (2013). Coordination polymer gels with important environmental and biological applications. Chem. Soc. Rev., (2013) 42 (3), 924–936. DOI: 10.1039/C2CS35407A
Media
Third time's the charm.
Catching up at NYSCC 2021 Supplier's Day
Lignin resins from above kind of look like the suburbs.
