MSU engineering student’s research paper wins recognition
March 8, 2006
A Mississippi State chemical engineering doctoral student from Cordova, Tenn., is being recognized by a national organization for his research paper on alternative energy sources.
In May, Darrell L. Sparks will receive the 2006 Outstanding Student Abstract Award of the American Oil Chemists Society. His report is titled “Modeling the Solubility of Oleic, Pelargonic and Azelaic in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide.”
Sparks is a 2003 summa cum laude graduate of the university, also in chemical engineering.
The Industrial Oil Products Division of the AOCS will present him with a $500 cash award during the group’s 97th annual meeting and exposition in St. Louis, Mo.
“The AOCS is an international society, and students from all over the world submit papers to the organization,” said Sparks, the son of Darrell and Judy Sparks. “For my abstract to be chosen as the best is very special to me.”
Sparks works in the Renewable Fuels and Chemicals Laboratory in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, a part of MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering. His research interest lies in alternative energy sources, and he is researching ways to produce biodiesel from biomass.
“Darrell is an outstanding individual, respected by all the students and faculty in the department for his dedication and leadership,” said Rafael Hernandez, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and Sparks’s faculty adviser.
Sparks currently serves as vice president of the campus chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers and as the Swalm School’s representative to the MSU Graduate Student Association.
LOCAL EDITORS: For more information, contact Sparks or Hernandez.