MSDE Symposium 2023: Frontiers in Molecular Engineering

Linda Broadbelt is Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Associate Dean for Research of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University.  She was Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering from 2009-2017.  She was also appointed the Donald and June Brewer Junior Professor from 1994-1996.  She has completed the short course Business for Scientists and Engineers through the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.  Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of multiscale modeling, complex kinetics modeling, environmental catalysis, novel biochemical pathways, and polymerization/depolymerization kinetics.  She served as the Past Chair, Chair, First Vice Chair and Second Vice Chair of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE, and also previously served on the Executive Board of the National Program Committee of AIChE.  She is currently an Associate Editor for Industrial &Engineering Chemistry Research.  Her honors include selection as the winner of the R.H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering from AIChE, the E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial Chemistry and Engineering from the American Chemical Society, the Dorothy Ann and Clarence Ver Steeg Award, a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and an AIChE Women’s Initiative Committee Mentorship Excellence Award, selection as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of AIChE, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, appointment to the Defense Science Study Group of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and selection as the Su Distinguished Lecturer at University of Rochester, Ernest W. Thiele Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame and the Allan P. Colburn Lecturer at the University of Delaware.

Luke Connal is a Senior Lecturer at the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University (ANU) where he is an ANU Futures Fellow.  His research program is in the design of advanced polymeric materials for applied systems. He has been recognised by numerous awards such as the ACS Chemical and Engineering News Talented 12. 

Marc-Olivier COPPENS is Ramsay Memorial Professor in Chemical Engineering at UCL, since 2012, after professorships at Rensselaer and TU Delft. Having served as Head of Department of Chemical Engineering for 8 years, he is, since 2021, Vice-Dean for Engineering (Interdisciplinarity, Innovation) at UCL. He directs the UCL Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE), which was granted “Frontier Engineering” (2013) and “Progression” (2019) Awards by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). He is most recognised for pioneering nature-inspired chemical engineering (NICE) over the past 25 years and developing a systematic nature-inspired solution methodology to accelerate innovation and address Grand Challenges, associated to sustainable development. He has published >170 peer-reviewed journal articles and has delivered >50 plenaries, keynotes and named lectures. He is Fellow of IChemE, AIChE, RSC, Corresponding Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences (Germany), Qiushi Professor at Zhejiang University (China), Scientific Council Member for IFP Energies nouvelles (France), and serves on advisory and editorial boards, including Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification. 

Professor Heather J. Kulik is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. She received her B.E. in Chemical Engineering from the Cooper Union in 2004 and her Ph.D. from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT in 2009. She completed postdoctoral training at Lawrence Livermore and Stanford, prior to joining MIT as a faculty member in November 2013. Her research in computational catalysis and materials science has been recognised by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award and Director’s fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, the AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award,  the Journal of Physical Chemistry Lectureship and a Sloan Fellowship in chemistry, among others.

Niall is a Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of both the IChemE and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research is focused on understanding the transition to a low carbon economy, and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, technical reports, and books in this context.  

Niall has more than a decade’s experience as a consultant to the public and private sectors. He has worked with a range of private sector energy companies, and recently completed a two-year secondment to the UK Government Department BEIS (now DESNZ) where he acted as an expert policy advisor on CCUS and GGR. 

Niall is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of TotalEnergies, the Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS), and Joule. He was a member of the US National Petroleum Council (NPC) CCUS Roadmap Team, as well as the technical working group of the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP), the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), and is a science advisor to the venture capital fund, Carbon Direct. 

A multi award winning scientist, Niall was awarded the Qatar Petroleum medal for his research in 2010 and the IChemE’s Nicklin and Junior Moulton medals for his work on low carbon energy in 2015 and 2021, respectively.  

Robert Riggleman is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, which was followed by postdoctoral appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007-2008) and the department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California-Santa Barbara (2009-2010). His research group develops and implements advanced molecular modeling techniques to study soft matter systems like polymers and glassy materials. The group explore dynamics and thermodynamics of these systems across a variety of time and length scales to help explain and predict experimental findings.

Patrick Stayton is Washington Research Foundation Professor and Director of the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute at the University of Washington. He is the founding Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering and Sciences, and the Center for Intracellular Delivery of Biologics. His research group works at the interface of fundamental molecular science and applied molecular bioengineering. Studies are aimed at elucidating the basic principles underlying biomolecular recognition, and connected projects applying these principles to medical applications in the drug delivery, medical diagnostics, and regenerative medicine fields. He has also been awarded the 2009 Faculty Research Innovation Award, UW College of Engineering, and the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor Award from the Department of Bioengineering.