Exciting things have been happening at Rice and in our Department in the past year. President DesRoches launched the University's 10-year strategic plan, Momentous which aims for Rice to become the world's premier teaching and research university by delivering unparalleled personalized education and propelling breakthrough discoveries to transform lives and better humanity. The School of Engineering and Computing celebrated its 50th anniversary and alongside our Department celebrated its 85th anniversary. And, this year marks the 20th year of our name change, from Chemical Engineering (CENG) to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE).
I highlight but a few notes about our Department:
- ChBE launched new Master of Energy Transition and Sustainability (METS) Degree program with Earth Sciences department
- ChBE faculty (Haotian Wang and Aditya Mohite) designated Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers
- Rafael Verduzco elected American Physical Society Fellow
- Michael Wong to receive the Henry J. Albert Award from the International Precious Metals Institute
- Amanda Marciel selected as NSF CAREER Award recipient
- Tom Senftle promoted to associate professor
- Aditya Mohite promoted to full professor
- Abbas Firoozabadi elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering
- Alina Kampouri joined us in Jan. 2024 as assistant professor
- Jason Adams joined us in Jan. 2025 as assistant professor
- Menachem Elimelech joined us in Jan. 2025 as joint professor
- Everett Zofchak will join us in Jan. 2027 as assistant professor
- Drs. Andreas Matzakos and Xiankuan Zhang joined as adjunct professors in the practice
- Our Department is ranked in top 25 (top 10 among private universities) for both BS and PhD programs
My faculty and I look forward to continuing our mission to create molecular- and system-based knowledge that leads to new chemical engineering principles, tools, and solutions; and to educate future chemical engineers in the core fundamentals integrated with chemical, biological, and materials sciences and enhanced by computational and data learning tools.
Through our collective efforts in materials & nanotechnology, energy & sustainability, and biomolecular engineering, and with our research and industry partners in Houston and beyond, I am so excited about the positive impacts our students, our scholarship, and innovations will have on the world.
Go ChBE, go Rice!
Michael S. Wong
Department Chair
April 2025