Appendix E
Committee Member and Staff Biographical Sketches
Eric W. Kaler (Chair), NAE, is president of Case Western Reserve University. Previously, he was president emeritus and professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota and served on the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. Dr. Kaler also served as associate professor and dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware. Dr. Kaler’s research interests are in complex fluids containing surfactants, polymers, proteins, or colloidal particles, either separately or in mixtures. Additionally, he studies statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Dr. Kaler received one of the first Presidential Young Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation in 1984. He has received numerous other awards for his research and is a fellow of several scientific societies. Dr. Kaler has authored or coauthored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and holds 10 U.S. patents. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 and named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. Dr. Kaler earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1982.
Monty M. Alger, NAE, is professor of chemical engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. His experience in the chemical and energy industries includes positions as vice president and chief technology officer at Air Products and Chemicals Inc., and as senior vice president of research at Myriant. Dr. Alger spent 23 years at General Electric (GE), where he led technology development at the Global Research Center of GE Plastics and was general manager of technology for the advanced materials business. Prior to GE, he was director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Chemical Engineering Practice School Station at GE Plastics. Dr. Alger has served on advisory boards for several universities and organizations, including the Shenhua National Institute of Clean and Low-Carbon Energy and PTT Global Chemical (Thailand). He is a fellow and past president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Alger has an SB and SM in chemical engineering from MIT and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Gilda A. Barabino, NAE, NAM, is president of Olin College of Engineering and professor of biomedical and chemical engineering. She previously served as Daniel and Frances Berg professor and dean at the City College of New York (CCNY) Grove School of Engineering. Prior to joining CCNY, Dr. Barabino was associate chair for graduate studies and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. At Georgia Tech, she also served as inaugural vice provost for academic diversity. Dr. Barabino is a noted investigator in the areas of sickle cell disease; cellular and tissue engineering; and the role of race, ethnicity, and gender in science and engineering. She is president-elect of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest interdisciplinary scientific society. Dr. Barabino is also an active member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine and serves on numerous committees of the National Academies, including the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine; the Health and Medicine Division Committee; and the Committee on Women in Science Engineering and Medicine, which she chairs. She consults nationally and internationally on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and research, diversity in higher education, policy, and faculty and workforce development. Dr. Barabino received a PhD in chemical engineering from Rice University.
Gregg T. Beckham is a senior research fellow and group leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he leads an interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists, engineers, and material scientists developing green processes and products from lignocellulosic biomass and waste plastics. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Beckham was awarded the American Chemical Society (ACS) OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Computational Science and Engineering Forum Young Investigator Award, an inaugural ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering Lectureship, the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) Young Investigator Award, the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize, the SIMB Charles D. Scott Award, the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society Outstanding Young Scientist Award, and the NREL Innovator of the Year Award. He is also founding cochair of both the Lignin Gordon Research Conference (2018) and the Plastics Upcycling and Recycling Gordon Research Conference (2022). He testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology on “Closing the Loop: Emerging Technologies in Plastics Recycling” and coorganized the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium on “Closing the Loop on the Plastics Dilemma,” both in 2019. At NREL, Dr. Beckham cofounded and leads the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)–funded BOTTLE Consortium, which develops advanced plastics recycling and redesign strategies. He also was a founding member of the Agile BioFoundry and several other DOE-funded consortia. Before NREL, Dr. Beckham served as director of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Practice School Station in Singapore. He received an MSCEP in 2004 and PhD in chemical engineering in 2007 at MIT.
Dimitris I. Collias is research fellow in the Corporate Research and Development Department of the Procter & Gamble (P&G) Company, leading the development of technologies in the bio- and circular economy space, such as bioacrylic acid, biosurfactants alcohols, recycled polyolefins, and recycled superabsorbent polymers, which are currently in various stages of commercialization. His experience in industrial materials processing, properties, and delivery systems spans 29 years. Dr. Collias has experience in technology development and management; has worked extensively with outside industrial partners, start up companies, and universities; and has seen many of his
technical developments commercialized in various P&G products. He coauthored the book Polymer Processing—Principles and Design, is coauthoring and coediting a book on Circular Economy of Polymers—Topics in Recycling Technologies, has published more than 40 articles in journals and conference proceedings, and holds more than 100 granted U.S. patents and numerous patent applications. Dr. Collias has earned many awards, such as the 2020 American Chemical Society’s (ACS’s) Affordable Green Chemistry Award, P&G’s CTO Pathfinder Awards in 2019 and 2010, P&G’s IP Strategy Award in 2018, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Recognition and Commendation in 2009, and P&G’s Cost Innovation Award in 2007. He is a member of ACS, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Rheology, the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the American Oil Chemists’ Society. Dr. Collias earned a diploma in chemical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University.
Juan J. de Pablo, NAE, is Liew Family professor and executive vice president for national laboratories, science strategy, innovation, and global initiatives at the University of Chicago. He is also a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. de Pablo is a leader in developing models and simulations of molecular and large-scale phenomena, including advanced molecular simulation methods and artificial-intelligence–based algorithms; he also conducts supercomputer simulations to design and find applications for new materials, including protein optimization and aggregation, DNA folding and hybridization, glassy materials, block copolymers, liquid crystals, and active molecular systems. He holds more than 20 patents and has authored or coauthored approximately 650 publications. Dr. de Pablo received the DuPont Medal for Excellence in Nutrition and Health Sciences, the Intel Patterning Science Award, the Charles Stine Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society (APS). He is also a member of AIChE and has served as chair of the awards selection subcommittee. Dr. de Pablo is founding editor of Molecular Systems Designing and Engineering and deputy editor of Science Advances. He has served as chair of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation and the Committee on Condensed Matter and Materials Research at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the APS. Dr. de Pablo was elected as foreign correspondent member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2014, and he was elected into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2016. He earned a PhD in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sharon C. Glotzer, NAS, NAE, is Anthony C. Lembke Department chair of chemical engineering and John W. Cahn distinguished university professor at the University of Michigan. Her research on computational assembly science and engineering aims toward predictive materials design of colloidal and soft matter. Dr. Glotzer is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the Materials Research Society (MRS). She has received numerous awards, including the Nanoscale
Science & Engineering Forum Award, the Alpha Chi Sigma Award, and the Charles M.A. Stine Award from AIChE; the Kavli Lectureship from the MRS and the MRS Medal; the Aneesur Rahman Prize in Computational Physics from the APS; and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Glotzer has participated in many activities of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and she serves currently on the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences Committee and served previously on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (2015–2020). She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Glotzer earned a PhD in physics from Boston University.
Paula Hammond, NAS, NAE, NAM, is instititute professor and department head of the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); she is also a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the MIT Energy Initiative, and she is a founding member of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. She previously served as executive officer (associate chair) of the Chemical Engineering Department and is associate editor for the journal ACS Nano. Dr. Hammond’s research is focused on the self-assembly of polymeric nanomaterials, particularly the use of electrostatics and other complementary interactions to generate functional materials with highly controlled architectures, including the development of new biomaterials and electrochemical energy devices. She served on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine from 2006 to 2009, and was chair of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Materials Science and Engineering Division. Dr. Hammond has been involved for several years in developing Polymer programming, and in the past has served as faculty advisor for the AIChE MIT student chapter. She received the William Grimes Award and the Distinguished Scientist Award from Harvard University, and she is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Polymer Division of the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineers. Dr. Hammond earned a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT.
Enrique Iglesia, NAE, is Theodore Vermeulen chair in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and laboratory fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research addresses the synthesis and structural and mechanistic characterization of porous inorganic catalysts useful in energy conversion, chemical synthesis, and environmental control. He is a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and an honorary fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society. Dr. Iglesia received a Senior Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and doctors honoris causa degrees from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and the Technical University of Munich. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Inventors, and the Real Academia de Ciencias (Spain). Dr. Iglesia received the Olah, Somorjai, and Murphree awards from the ACS; the Wilhelm, Alpha Chi Sigma, and Walker awards from the AIChE; the Emmett, Burwell, Gault, Boudart, and Distinguished Service awards from the European and North American Catalysis Societies; and the Cross
Canada Lectureship from the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is former editor-in-chief of The Journal of Catalysis and has served as president of the North American Catalysis Society and the International Association of Catalysis Societies. His dedication to teaching has been recognized with several campus awards, most notably the Noyce Prize, the most prestigious teaching award in the physical sciences at Berkeley. Dr. Iglesia received a B.S. from Princeton University and a PhD from Stanford University, both in chemical engineering.
Sangtae Kim, NAE, is distinguished professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University, where he was also inaugural Donald W. Feddersen distinguished professor of mechanical engineering. He served previously as executive director, Morgridge Institute for Research; inaugural division director, National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastructure Division; and vice president of research and development in information technology at Eli Lilly and Warner Lambert. Dr. Kim started his career as a faculty member in chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, where he developed mathematical and computational methods for microhydrodynamics and coauthored a book on this topic, published in 1991. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and a trustee of the AIChE Foundation. Dr. Kim received the 2013 Ho-Am Prize in Engineering, AICHE’s George Lappin and Colburn awards, and the 1992 Award for Initiatives in Research from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He received a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University.
Samir Mitragotri, NAE, NAM, is Hiller professor of bioengineering and Hansjorg Wyss professor of biologically inspired engineering at Harvard University, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research is focused on transdermal, oral, and targeted drug delivery systems. Dr. Mitragotri has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of biological barriers and drug delivery, advancing fundamental understanding of biological barriers and enabling the development of new materials and technologies for diagnosis and treatment of various ailments, including diabetes and cardiovascular, skin, and infectious diseases. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Dr. Mitragotri is an author of more than 350 publications; an inventor on more than 200 patents or patent applications; and a recipient of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’s Colburn and Acrivos Professional Progress awards, as well as the Society for Biomaterials’s Clemson award. He received a PhD in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Babatunde A. Ogunnaike, NAE, was the William L. Friend Chaired professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, where he began serving after a 13-year research career with DuPont. His research focused on process control, modeling and simulation, systems biology, and applied statistics. Dr. Ogunnaike made notable contributions to the modeling and control of industrial polymer reactors and to understanding biological control systems. He was the author or coauthor of four books, including the widely used textbook Process Dynamics, Modeling and Control and Random Phenomena: Fundamentals of Probability and Statistics for Engineers. Dr. Ogunnaike received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE’s) CAST Computing Practice Award, the University of Delaware’s College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award, the International Society of Automation’s Eckman Award, and the American Automation and Control Council’s Control Engineering Practice Award. He was a fellow of the AIChE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Federation of Automatic Control, and the Nigerian Academy of Engineering. Dr. Ogunnaike received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Anne Robinson is trustee professor and department head of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds several patents and has authored more than 100 publications in the areas of protein (re)folding and aggregation, protein biophysics, and protein expression of therapeutically relevant protein molecules. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Robinson served on the board of directors of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); she is on the advisory board of Biotechnology and Bioengineering and the editorial board of Biotechnology Journal, and has been an ad hoc reviewer for many National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation study sections. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Robinson received a DuPont Young Professor Award and a National Science Foundation Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering, and she is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and of the AIChE. Dr. Robinson received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
José G. Santiesteban, NAE, is recently retired from ExxonMobil, where he served for more than 30 years in a number of technical leadership and management roles, including, mostly recently, strategy manager for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. In this role, he led a team for developing strategic technology direction, providing research guidance, and ensuring robustness of the research and development portfolio. His expertise is in heterogeneous catalysis, including design, synthesis, physical chemical characterization of novel catalytic materials, and reaction mechanisms and kinetics. Dr. Santiesteban is inventor or coinventor on more than 85 U.S. patents, editor of two special catalysis journals, and coauthor of more than 20 referenced publications. He has led and made significant technical contributions to the discovery, development, and commercialization of more than 20 novel catalyst technologies for the production of high-performing lubricants, clean fuels, and petrochemicals. Dr. Santiesteban was elected a
member of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas in 2018. He received the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers 2018 Innovator Award and the “Key to the City” of Parral from Chihuahua in 2016; he also received multiple technical and leadership awards within ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company and Mobil Research and Development Company. Dr. Sanitesteban is a board member of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and a senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the North American Catalysis Society. He has served on the advisory board of various academic and research institutions around the world. Dr. Santiesteban received a PhD in physical chemistry from Lehigh University.
Rachel A. Segalman, NAE, is Schlinger department chair of chemical engineering and Edward Noble Kramer professor of materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, she served as acting director at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in the Materials Science Division and as professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Segalman’s research is focused on molecular structure control over soft matter on molecular through nanoscopic length scales to optimize properties for applications ranging from energy to biomaterials. She is particularly interested in materials for energy applications, such as batteries, photovoltaics, fuel cells, and thermoelectrics. Dr. Segalman received the Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society (APS), the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, and the Innovation Award from the Journal of Polymer Science. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a fellow of APS, and is an elected senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Segalman received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
David Sholl is director of the Transformational Decarbonization Initiative at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From 2013 to 2021, he was school chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research uses computational materials modeling to accelerate development of new materials for energy-related applications, including generation and storage of gaseous and liquid fuels and CO2 mitigation. Before his appointment at Georgia Tech, Dr. Sholl served on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University for 10 years. He has published more than 360 papers, which have been cited more than 21,000 times. He has also written a textbook on density functional theory, a quantum-chemistry method applied widely through the physical sciences and engineering. Dr. Sholl served as a member on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on a Research Agenda for a New Era in Separations Science. He was senior editor of the American Chemical Society journal Langmuir for 10 years, and he was instrumental in the development of the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Institute, a $70 million, U.S. Department of Energy–funded manufacturing institute focused on process intensification run by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Sholl received a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Kathleen J. Stebe, NAE, is Goodwin professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research is focused on directed assembly in soft matter and at fluid interfaces. After training at the Levich Institute under the guidance of Charles Maldarelli, she spent a postdoctoral year in Compiegne, France, under the guidance of Dominique Barthes-Biesel. Thereafter, Dr. Stebe joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University, and later joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, by the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, and as a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Radcliffe Institute. Dr. Stebe received a PhD in chemical engineering at the City College of New York.
STAFF
Maggie L. Walser is associate executive director of the Division on Earth and Life Studies and has been with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine since 2010. She previously served as senior program officer with the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology and as director of education and capacity building for the Gulf Research Program, where she contributed to strategic planning for the program and oversaw education and training activities and fellowship programs that support early-career scientists. From 2010 to 2014, Dr. Walser was a program officer with the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and worked on such topics as climate science, weather research and policy, climate change and water security, and Arctic research priorities. Before joining the staff of the National Academies, she was congressional science fellow with the American Geophysical Union (AGU)/American Association for the Advancement of Science, and worked on water and energy policy and legislation with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Dr. Walser is past president of the AGU Science and Society Section. She holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering and a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.
Brittany P. Bishop was a Christine Mirzayan science and technology policy fellow in 2020 with the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Her research interests include clean energy and renewable technologies. Dr. Bishop earned a B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where she researched continuous flow nanocrystal synthesis techniques, and a PhD in chemical engineering and nanotechnology and molecular engineering from the University of Washington.
Kesiah Clement was research associate with the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which she joined as a program assistant in July 2019. She graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a B.S. in science, technology, and international affairs focusing on global environmental health. In 2021, Ms. Clement left the National Academies to pursue a JD at the University of Colorado Boulder Law School.
Liana Vaccari is program officer with the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to this role, she acted as the Resiliency Working Group lead at the New Jersey Department of Transportation as a science fellow of the Rutgers University Eagleton Institute of Politics, where she coordinated internal efforts to incorporate projected risks from climate change into project prioritization, asset management, and other agency processes. Previously, Dr. Vaccari worked at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, managing community engagement for the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a federally funded resource for ocean scientists. She was a Mirzayan science and technology policy graduate fellow in 2018 with the Ocean Studies Board at the National Academies, where she contributed to studies examining the use of dispersants in oil spills and coral reef resilience. Dr. Vaccari earned a B.E. in chemical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, a B.S. in chemistry from New York University, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jessica Wolfman is research assistant for the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (BCST). She joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2017 as a senior program assistant with both BCST and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. Ms. Wolfman has worked on a variety of activities at the National Academies, including studies examining the states of chemical separations, the future of chemical engineering, and the chemical economy. She currently leads a webinar series for the Chemical Sciences Roundtable, a standing body within the BCST. Ms. Wolfman graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College with a B.S. in earth sciences and a minor in mathematics.
Elise Zaidi is communications and media associate for the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Her primary responsibilities include promoting report releases, creating derivative products for National Academies projects and publications, and formulating targeted outreach campaigns for committee and study activities. Prior to starting her work with the National Academies in July 2019, Ms. Zaidi held positions with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pan American Health Organization. She graduated from The George Washington University with a B.A. in international affairs with a concentration in global public health and a minor in journalism and mass communication.
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