Faculty Directory
Linda J. Broadbelt

Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor

Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Senior Associate Dean

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech L252
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-467-1751Email Linda Broadbelt

Website

Broadbelt Research Group

Departments

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Affiliations

PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences

Education

Business for Scientists and Engineers, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

B.S. Chemical Engineering (summa cum laude), Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio


Research Interests

Complex kinetics modeling, catalysis and biocatalysis, polymerization and depolymerization

The scientific motivation driving the work in my research group is unraveling complexity in reacting systems. We recognize that macroscopic observations are linked to microscopic phenomena, and analysis spanning these regimes provides the best opportunity for fundamental understanding and development of novel engineering strategies. The systems that we study, however, are sufficiently complex that the atomic-scale events leading to the observed behavior are obscured. We concentrate our efforts in three main topical areas using a combination of experiment and theory. Reaction systems that we model may consist of thousands of reactive intermediates and molecules and thus are too large for models to be developed without automated computer tools. Polymeric systems that we study require description of transformations of high molecular weight chains and evolution of low molecular weight products. Catalytic and biocatalytic systems that we investigate demand quantification of the interaction energies between numerous species and complex catalytic environments. We therefore develop capabilities to facilitate quantitative analysis and description of complex systems at the macroscopic level, and we devise strategies and apply tools for probing and quantifying molecular-level events.


Selected Publications

  • Lejarza, Fernando; Koninckx, Elsa; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Baldea, Michael, A dynamic nonlinear optimization framework for learning data-driven reduced-order microkinetic models, Chemical Engineering Journal (2023).
  • Martin, Jacob P.; Rasor, Blake J.; DeBonis, Jonathon; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C.; Tyo, Keith E.J.; Broadbelt, Linda J., A dynamic kinetic model captures cell-free metabolism for improved butanol production, Metabolic Engineering (2023).
  • Marsden, Grant; Kostetskyy, Pavlo; Sekiya, Ryoh Suke; Hoffman, Alexander; Lee, Songhyun; Gounder, Rajamani; Hibbitts, David; Broadbelt, Linda J., Quantifying Effects of Active Site Proximity on Rates of Methanol Dehydration to Dimethyl Ether over Chabazite Zeolites through Microkinetic Modeling, ACS Materials Au (2022).
  • Koninckx, Elsa; Gounder, Rajamani; Thybaut, Joris W.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Kinetic Modeling of Ethene Oligomerization on Bifunctional Nickel and Acid β Zeolites, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (2022).
  • Shi, Changxia; Reilly, Liam T.; Phani Kumar, V. Sai; Coile, Matthew W.; Nicholson, Scott R.; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Beckham, Gregg T.; Chen, Eugene Y.X., Design principles for intrinsically circular polymers with tunable properties, Chem (2021).
  • Coile, Matthew W.; Harmon, Rebecca E.; Wang, Guanhua; SriBala, Gorugantu; Broadbelt, Linda J., Kinetic Monte Carlo Tool for Kinetic Modeling of Linear Step-Growth Polymerization, Macromolecular Theory and Simulations (2022).
  • Lopez, Lauren M.; Shanks, Brent H.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Identification of bioprivileged molecules, Molecular Systems Design and Engineering 6(6):445-460 (2021).
  • Harmon, Rebecca E.; Sribala, Gorugantu; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Burnham, Alan K., Insight into Polyethylene and Polypropylene Pyrolysis, Energy and Fuels 35(8):6765-6775 (2021).
  • Ni, Zhuofu; Stine, Andrew E.; Tyo, Keith E.J.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Curating a comprehensive set of enzymatic reaction rules for efficient novel biosynthetic pathway design, Metabolic Engineering 65:79-87 (2021).
  • Wang, Guanhua; Lopez, Lauren; Coile, Matthew; Chen, Yixuan; Torkelson, John M.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Identification of known and novel monomers for poly(hydroxyurethanes) from biobased materials, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 60(18):6814-6825 (2021).
  • Kostetskyy, Pavlo; Coile, Matthew W.; Terrian, Joshua M.; Collins, Jake W.; Martin, Kevin J.; Brazdil, James F.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Selective production of glycolaldehyde via hydrothermal pyrolysis of glucose, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 149 (2020).
  • Stadtherr, Mark A.; Allen, David T.; Ganesh, Hari S.; Dean, David P.; Vernuccio, Sergio; Edgar, Thomas F.; Baldea, Michael; Broadbelt, Linda J., Product Value Modeling for a Natural Gas Liquid to Liquid Transportation Fuel Process, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 59(7):3109-3119 (2020).
  • Strutz, Jonathan; Martin, Jacob; Greene, Jennifer; Broadbelt, Linda; Tyo, Keith, Metabolic kinetic modeling provides insight into complex biological questions, but hurdles remain, Current Opinion in Biotechnology 59:24-30 (2019).
  • Peng, Anyang; Kung, Mayfair C.; Brydon, Robert R.O.; Ross, Matthew O.; Qian, Linping; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Kung, Harold H., Noncontact catalysis, Science Advances 6(5) (2020).
  • Yu, Ying; Zhu, Youlong; Bhagat, Mihir N.; Raghuraman, Arjun; Hirsekorn, Kurt F.; Notestein, Justin M.; Nguyen, Sonbinh T.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Mechanism of Regioselective Ring-Opening Reactions of 1,2-Epoxyoctane Catalyzed by Tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane, ACS Catalysis 8(12):11119-11133 (2018).
  • Oakley, Lindsay H.; Casadio, Francesca; Shull, Professor Kenneth R.; Broadbelt, Professor Linda J., Modeling the Evolution of Crosslinked and Extractable Material in an Oil-Based Paint Model System, Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 57(25):7413-7417 (2018).
  • Brydon, Robert R.O.; Peng, Anyang; Qian, Linping; Kung, Harold H.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Microkinetic Modeling of Homogeneous and Gold Nanoparticle-Catalyzed Oxidation of Cyclooctene, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 57(14):4832-4840 (2018).
  • Zhou, Xiaowei; Li, Wenjun; Mabon, Ross; Broadbelt, Linda J., A mechanistic model of fast pyrolysis of hemicellulose, Energy and Environmental Science 11(5):1240-1260 (2018).
  • Yanez, Abraham J.; Natarajan, Pradeep; Li, Wenjun; Mabon, Ross; Broadbelt, Linda J, Coupled Structural and Kinetic Model of Lignin Fast Pyrolysis, Energy and Fuels 32(2):1822-1830 (2018).
  • Greene, Jennifer L.; Waechter, Andreas; Tyo, Keith Edward Jaggard; Broadbelt, Linda J, Acceleration Strategies to Enhance Metabolic Ensemble Modeling Performance, Biophysical Journal 113(5):1150-1162 (2017).
  • Dellon, Lauren D.; Yanez, Abraham J.; Li, Wenjun; Mabon, Ross; Broadbelt, Linda J, Computational Generation of Lignin Libraries from Diverse Biomass Sources, Energy and Fuels 31(8):8263-8274 (2017).
  • Gao, Hanyu; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Konstantinov, Ivan A.; Arturo, Steven G., Acceleration of kinetic monte carlo simulations of free radical copolymerization, AIChE Journal 63(9):4013-4021 (2017).
  • Zhou, Xiaowei; Li, Wenjun; Mabon, Ross; Broadbelt, Linda J, A critical review on hemicellulose pyrolysis, Energy Technology 5(1):52-79 (2016).
  • Zhou, X.; Broadbelt, L. J.; Vinu, R., Mechanistic Understanding of Thermochemical Conversion of Polymers and Lignocellulosic Biomass, Academic Press:95-195 (2016).
  • Yanez, Abraham J.; Li, Wenjun; Mabon, Ross; Broadbelt, Linda J., A Stochastic Method to Generate Libraries of Structural Representations of Lignin, Energy and Fuels 30(7):5835-5845 (2016).
  • Zhou, Xiaowei; Mayes, Heather B.; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Nolte, Michael W.; Shanks, Brent H., Fast pyrolysis of glucose-based carbohydrates with added NaCl part 2, AIChE Journal 62(3):778-791 (2016).
  • Zhou, Xiaowei; Mayes, Heather B.; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Nolte, Michael W.; Shanks, Brent H., Fast pyrolysis of glucose-based carbohydrates with added NaCl part 1, AIChE Journal 62(3):766-777 (2016).
  • Stine, Andrew; Zhang, Miaomin; Ro, Soo; Clendennen, Stephanie; Shelton, Michael C.; Tyo, Keith E.J.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Exploring De Novo metabolic pathways from pyruvate to propionic acid, Biotechnology Progress 32(2):303-311 (2016).
  • Gao, Hanyu; Oakley, Lindsay H.; Konstantinov, Ivan A.; Arturo, Steven G.; Broadbelt, Linda J., Acceleration of Kinetic Monte Carlo Method for the Simulation of Free Radical Copolymerization through Scaling, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 54(48):11975-11985 (2015).
  • Zhang, Guozhen; Zhang, Lanhe; Gao, Hanyu; Konstantinov, Ivan A.; Arturo, Steven G.; Yu, Decai; Torkelson, John M.; Broadbelt, Linda J., A Combined Computational and Experimental Study of Copolymerization Propagation Kinetics for 1-Ethylcyclopentyl methacrylate and Methyl methacrylate, Macromolecular Theory and Simulations 25(3):263-273 (2016).