Professor
Department Vice Chair
Pronounced: HEL-guess-un
Contact
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5080
ChemE Research Areas:
Honors:
2026 Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA) Fellow
2020 Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA) Science Prize
2018 Van Ness Award Lectures at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2018 Allan P. Colburn Memorial Lectureship, U of Delaware
2016 Unilever Award, American Chemical Society
2016 Hellman Foundation Faculty Fellowship
2015 Early Career Award, Department of Energy
2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, Northrop Grumman
2014 Early Career Award, National Science Foundation
2012 Distinguished Young Rheologist Award, TA Instruments
2011 Victor K. LaMer Award, American Chemical Society
2009 National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship
2009 McCullough Award, Delaware Center for Composite Materials
2009 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Delaware
2008 Neutron Scattering Society of America Student Prize
2008 First Prize, SoftMatt Research Conference
2008 Progress Award, Delaware Center for Composite Materials
2007 University Graduate Fellows Award, University of Delaware
2007 Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research, ACS POLY
2004 Robert L. Pigford Fellowship, University of Delaware
2004 McCabe Society, Carnegie Mellon University
2003 Tau Beta Pi, Pennsylvania Gamma Chapter
Research Description:
Our research is devoted to the engineering of flow, thermal, and reactive processes to create complex fluids and soft materials with well-specified mesostructure and rheology including colloidal, polymeric, biomolecular and self-assembling materials. To aid this research, we develop experimental and theoretical tools (scattering, microscopy, rheology, statistical & colloidal thermodynamics) for multi-scale characterization and prediction of fluid structure and dynamics. We have particular expertise in developing methods for in situ dynamic monitoring of fluid structure and rheology to characterize and model the evolution of microstructure and material properties during processing. A significant recent focus has been to develop experimental approaches that integrate high-throughput rheological and microstructural measurements with machine learning to enable rapid formulation, characterization and modeling of rheology-enabled materials.
Education:
BS: Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (2004)
PhD: Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2009)
Postdoc: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009-2011)
