Research / Areas of ResearchSustainability and Energy
The existential challenges to society posed by climate change, environmental degradation, and the loss of biodiversity will be exacerbated by population growth and the imperative to increase the quality of life for much of the world’s population. Chemical and biological engineers are uniquely prepared to address these challenges, for example, by developing environmentally friendly, energy-, water- and material-efficient materials and processes. Advanced technologies are required for climate change mitigation and adaptation. New and emerging materials and technologies can be designed to be inclusive and to minimize indirect adverse impacts on humans and the environment. The interconnection of sustainability and energy with health, food and water security, and economic opportunity shows that sustainability and energy impact all aspects of our lives. Experimental, theoretical, and computational research and analysis all contribute to sustainable and resilient designs and their implementation.
Faculty
Linda Broadbelt
Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Senior Associate Dean
Novel computational approaches to address hurdles facing the biomass industry in the transition to more sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials.
Jennifer Dunn
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering
Director, Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience
Life cycle and material flow analysis of emerging technologies, energy, bioeconomy, plastics, circular economy, water, batteries, AI for sustainability.
Sam Kriegman
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Jeffrey Lopez
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Design of new materials for energy storage applications, charge transport, reactions at electrochemical interfaces, automated experimentation.
Julius Lucks
Margery Claire Carlson Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Environmental monitoring with synthetic biology diagnostic technologies.
Tobin Marks
Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Materials Science and Engineering
The Marks group has chemists and engineers working on waste polymer deconstruction and recycling, solar energy, and efficient hydrocarbon utilization.
Justin Notestein
Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
The Notestein group is interested in designing selective catalysts for important chemical reactions to reduce waste and energy demands.
Jeffrey Richards
Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
The Richards Lab designs advanced materials and processes to improve the performance of sustainable energy and water technologies.
Linsey Seitz
Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Electrocatalysis, in situ spectroscopy, dynamic materials, and reactor design towards renewable production of fuels and chemicals.
Randall Snurr
John G. Searle Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Energy-efficient separations, carbon capture, atmospheric water harvesting, hydrogen storage.
Dayne Swearer
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The Swearer Lab develops catalysts for solar fuels, explores electromagnetic mechanisms for CO2 conversion, the generation of zero-carbon fuels, and remediation methods for anthropogenic pollutants.
John Torkelson
Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering
Advanced polymers for sustainability; polyurethane replacements with non-isocyanate-based polymers; reprocessable polymer networks for tire recycling.
Danielle Tullman-Ercek
James N. and Nancy J. Farley Professor in Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Director, Master of Science in Biotechnology Program
Using enzymes to degrade and upcycle plastics, producing biofuels and biochemicals from sustainable feedstocks, developing biodegradable materials.
Keith Tyo
Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Engineering cells and enzymes by improving biofuel and biochemical production efficiency, and by synthesizing new molecules.
Courtesy
Omar Farha
Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professorship in Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering
The Farha group designs metal-organic framework-based catalysts and adsorbents to enable a more sustainable and energy efficient future.
Kimberly Gray
Stanley F. Pepper Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (by courtesy)
Photoactive materials for environmental applications, graphene-based adsorbents & PEC membranes for water treatment, nanotoxicity, green infrastructure.
Chad Mirkin
George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
Director, International Institute for Nanotechnology
Mirkin explores the enormous parameter space of polyelemental nanoparticles, identifying ones for fuel cells, solar energy, and light emission.
Aaron Packman
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering
Analysis and modeling of environmental transport processes; contaminant transport; waterborne disease transmission; urban sustainability and resilience.
George Schatz
Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering
The Schatz group uses electronic structure and molecular dynamics to study problems including metals recovery, active materials, and photocatalysis.