Seminars & Lectures
We invite leading scholars and industry leaders to Seattle throughout the year to share their knowledge and expertise. UW ChemE's seminars, lectures, and symposia represent an essential component of our vibrant academic culture, and they provide students with outstanding opportunities to interact with professionals in many fields.
Department Seminar Series
The Department Seminar Series brings in a variety of academic and industrial professionals to give presentations on their areas of research and expertise. These lectures are held on Mondays during the autumn, winter, and spring quarters. During the 2020-2021 academic year, they will take place from 2:30–3:30 p.m. Pacific time.
2020-2021 Academic Year
December 7
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David HoweyOxford University Data-driven battery health diagnosis in real-world applications |
November 30
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Marta HatzellGeorgia Tech |
November 23
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ChemE Graduate Awards Day
|
November 9 |
Debra AugusteNortheastern University Engineering Targeted Therapeutics for Triple Negative Breast Cancer |
November 2 |
Sharon GlotzerUniversity of Michigan |
October 26 |
Elisa FrancoUCLA Programming dynamic behaviors in molecular systems and materials |
October 19
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Shuyi MaUniversity of Washington |
October 12 |
Eric AppelStanford University Supramolecular (Bio)materials: From Fundamentals to Advanced Healthcare Solutions
|
September 28 |
Elizabeth NanceUniversity of Washington Nano and neuro technology development for kids
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2019-2020 Academic Year
January 13 |
Molly ShoichetUniversity of Toronto |
January 6 |
Mark DavisCalifornia Institute of Technology |
November 25 |
Jason BaxterDrexel University |
November 18 |
Shelly Sakiyama-ElbertUT Austin Biomaterials for Drug Delivery and Cell Transplantation to Treat Nerve Injury |
November 4 |
Tonio BuonassisiMassachusettes Institute of Technology |
October 28
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Millicent SullivanUniversity of Delaware Unlocking Intracellular Therapeutic Targets Using Bioinspired Materials |
October 21 |
Corey WilsonGeorgia Tech Programming transcription using engineered systems of gene |
October 14 |
Bhuvnesh BhartiLouisiana State University |
October 7 |
Zachary UlissiCarnegie Mellon University Challenges in Data Science Methods for Catalyst Design and Discovery |
September 30 |
Steve RofflerAcademic Sinica, Taipei Anti-PEG antibodies: Detection, targeting and impact on PEGylated proteins and stealth nanomedicine |
2018-2019 Academic Year
June 3 |
Iryna ZenyukUniversity of California, Irvine Understanding Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells with X-ray Computed Tomography |
May 20 |
Robert RalloPNNL Data-driven analysis and modeling in Chemical and Environmental Engineering |
May 6 |
Gregory StephanopoulosMIT |
April 29 |
Cole DeForestUniversity of Washington User-Programmable Hydrogel Biomaterials to Probe and Direct 4D Stem Cell Fate |
April 8 |
Lydia ContrerasUniversity of Texas Understanding and engineering RNAs for programmable gene control |
April 1 |
John StaserOhio University Electrochemical Conversion of Biorefinery Waste to Industrial Chemicals |
March 11
|
Lynn WalkerProfessor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry |
January 28 |
Anatoly FrenkelProfessor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering |
January 14 |
Markita LandryAssistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
December 3 |
Amish PatelReliance Industries Term Assistant Professor |
November 19 |
Jim PfaendtnerJagjeet and Janice Bindra Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Rise of the machines: What is molecular data science and why should you care? |
November 5 |
Jillian BuriakProfessor, University of Alberta Polymers and Patterns: Directed Self-Assembly for Nanolithography |
October 22 |
Peter KofinasProfessor and Chair Responsive and Intelligent Polymers for Recognitive Systems, Energy Storage and Biomedical Devices |
October 15 |
Lynden ArcherJames A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering |
October 8 |
Lilo D. PozzoWeyerhaeuser Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Nano-Emulsion design, synthesis and applications in medicine |
October 1![]() |
Chunlong ChenSenior Research Scientist Designing sequence-definted peptoids for bio-inspired synthesis of functional nanomaterials |
2017-2018 Academic Year
June 4 |
Christina SmolkeProfessor of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering High-throughput strategies for the generation of RNA-based sensors and controllers Stanford University |
May 14 |
James CarothersAssistant Professor, Chemical Engineering / Adjunct BioEngineering RNA Architectures for engineering and analyzing metabolism on a large scale University of Washington |
April 30 |
Scott MouraAssistant Professor Energy, Civil Infrastructure and Climate, Systems Berkeley Identification and Control of PDE Battery Electrochemistry Models |
Apirl 23 |
Mikhail ShapiroAssistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Heritage Principal Investigator California Institute of Technology Biomolecular Engineering for Non-Invasive Imaging and Control of Cellular Function |
April 16 |
Liney ArnadottirAssistant Professor Oregon State University Hindered translator/rotor model to determine adsorbate entropy with DFT |
April 9 |
John KitchinProfessor Carnegie Mellon University Machine-learning frameworks in computational catalysis and its potential impact on science and engineering |
April 2 |
Daniel FletcherDepartment Chair UC Berkeley When push comes to shove: Physical segregation of molecules at cell-cell contacts
|
March 26 |
Abhaya DatyeDistinguished Regents' Professor and Chair University of New Mexico Designing Catalysts for Meeting the DOE 150 °C Challenge for Exhaust Emissions |
March 5 |
Qiuming YuResearch Professor University of Washington Plasmonic Nanostructures for SERS Biosensing and |
February 26 |
Matthew D. MurbachPhD Candidate University of Washington Data science tools for the physics-based analysis of lithium-ion battery impedance spectra |
February 12 |
James RondinelliAssociate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Northwestern University Learning from Data to Design Functional Oxides without Inversion |
February 5 |
Stacey FinleyGordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair and University of Southern California |
January 29 |
Stacey BentJagdeep and Roshni Sign Professor of Chemical Engineering Stanford University Energy Conversion Materials by Atomic and Molecular Layer Deposition |
December 4 |
Elizabeth BiddingerThe City College of New York |
November 20 |
David BeckResearch Associate Professor University of Washington Data science: Accelerating innovation and discovery in chemical engineering & beyond |
November 13 |
Xiang ChenAssistant Professor University of Minnesota From Flocking Birds to Swarming Bacteria: A Study of the Dynamics of Active Fluids |
November 6 |
Steve LittleChairman of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and is the William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor in the Departments of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Bioengineering, Immunology, and Ophthalmology Controlling Controlled Release to Make Medicine That Imitates Life |
October 23 |
Marcus FostonAssistant Professor of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering |
October 16 |
Anne RobinsonChair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Tulane University |
2016-2017 Academic Year
May 15 |
Chris AlabiAssistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Bio-inspired sequence-defined oligoTEAs: assembly, characterization and applications |
May 8 |
Jin WangWalt & Virginia Woltosz Professor, Chemical Engineering Systems Engineering Approaches to the Study of Complex Biological Systems and Industrial Processes |
May 1 |
Bilge YildizAssociate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Oxygen Reduction Kinetics on Perovskite Oxides: Effects of Strain and Surfaces |
April 24 |
Katie WhiteheadAssistant Professor, Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering |
April 10 |
Gen. Ellen PawlikowskiUS Air Force Material Command This special lecture will be held in ARCH 147. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski is hosted by WChE/ACES. |
April 4
|
Mike McShaneProfessor, Biomedical Engineering From Wearables to Implantables: Enabling Next-Generation Health Monitoring |
March 27 |
Robert ThorneAssistant Professor, Pharmacy |
March 6 |
Michael GordonAssociate Professor of Chemical Engineering Engineering Nanostructures for Photonics, Energy and Materials Characterization Applications |
February 27
|
Vidhya ChakrapaniAssistant Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering Role of Defects in Enhancing the Electrochemical Properties of Transition Metal Oxide |
January 31 |
César TorresAssistant Professor of Chemical Engineering |
January 23 |
Michael ShirtsAssociate Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering Why can't we engineer drugs on a computer? And what can be done about it? |
January 9 |
April KloxinAssistant Professor of of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering (affiliate) Designing responsive biomaterials for controlling the cell environment |
December 5 |
Chris MundyChemical Physics & Analysis Scientist |
November 21 |
Delia MillironAssociate Professor and Fellow of the Henry Beckman Professorship |
11/7 |
Andrew GoodwinAssistant Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering Rational Engineering of Colloids, Interfaces, and Assemblies for Stimulus-Responsive Biosensors |
October 31![]()
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Peter PauzauskieAssistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering |
October 24 |
Andrej LuptakAssociate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Genomic aptamers and ribozymes: From discovery to biological functions |
October 17 |
Lars GrabowAssistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Using Water as a Co-catalyst in Heterogeneous Catalysis to Improve Activity and Selectivity |
October 10 |
Bruce GatesProfessor of Chemical Engineering Molecular Metal Catalysts on Supports: Organometallic Chemistry Meets Surface Science |
October 3 |
Roseanne FordProfessor of Chemical Engineering |
Past seminar series
Chair's Distinguished Lecture
This annual event brings the world's most influential and accomplished chemical engineers to the University of Washington.
Sharon C. Glotzer of the University of Michigan will present the 2020 Chair’s Distinguished Lecture on Monday, November 2.
Past lecturers include Dr. Gregory Stephanopoulos, W. H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at MIT, and Dr. Sang Yup Lee, Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dean of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Institutes.
Distinguished Young Scholars Seminar Series >>
Graduate students and postdocs from around the nation come to Seattle in the summer to present their research at this weekly lecture series on the UW campus.
Leadership Seminar Series
Since 2011, the UW ChemE Leadership Seminars in the fall have provided a forum for industrial, academic and government leaders to share their background and insights with undergraduate and graduate students. They give speakers and students a unique opportunity to discuss topics related to leadership in chemical engineering professions, including career planning, management skills, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurship, ethics and strategic decision-making.
2020 Leadership Seminar Series >>
Graduate Student Symposium >>
The Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Symposium bridges the gap between industry and academia. Held in the autumn quarter, it provides graduate students the opportunity to present their work to representatives from industry and gives industry representatives a chance to meet future research leaders and learn about the exciting work being done at UW.
Past symposia
Bruce A. Finlayson Lectures >>
The lectures, named in honor of Rehnberg Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering Bruce A. Finlayson, are held each spring and feature chemical engineers who demonstrate exceptional scholarship, teaching, and service in their field. The inaugural Bruce A. Finlayson Lectures were held in 2013.
Past Finlayson Lectures