• CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
• COAL, GASSIFICATION
• ENGINEERING, BIO-MEDICAL
• ZEOLITE CLAYS

For 26 years, I have served on the faculty of Chemical Engineering. I have taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on thermodynamics, transport phenomena, unit operations, and reaction kinetics. I have performed and managed research projects for multiple funding agencies including U.S. DOE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Recently, I served as the coordinating PI on a multi-institution grant on biomass conversion. Previously, I served as a PI and UM lead investigator for our DOE-EPSCoR biomass conversion project. My team investigated methanogenesis of fermentation byproducts, developed sophisticated molecular weight analyses for lignin, and conducted preliminary studies on novel microbial sources, eg. insect digestive tract agents for lignocellulose processing.. My other research involves the environmental remediation of soil and water at military installations. With U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigators, I reviewed, performed, and published work on physical separations of heavy metals and explosives contaminated soil. In one project, we are synthesizing manganese oxide coatings onto sand grains. This will adsorb trace metals from groundwater in permeable reactive barriers. In another project we model fine dust suspension in a circulating wind tunnel, to better understand this nuisance and health hazard, particularly in the Middle East.