This year, UW ChemE was proud to present its first Early Career Impact Award. The award recognizes a graduate within 15 years of receiving their degree who has made significant contributions to engineering in industry, academia, government, or public or volunteer service. Our first honoree, Líney Árnadóttir, accepted the award at ChemE’s annual Graduate Student Symposium on September 23, 2021.

Líney Árnadóttir (M.S. '03, Ph.D. '07)

Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University

Líney’s research probes the mechanics of surface reactions at the molecular level, with applications in energy and material stability. She and her group primarily use computational approaches such as kinetic modeling and density functional theory to study surface chemistry, and they complement those methods with experimental surface science tools. She uses this distinctive hybrid approach to guide catalyst design and development for fuel cells and more-efficient industrial-scale processes, and to study the degradation mechanism of oxides for improved durability of catalysts and alloys, among other applications.

In addition to innovative research, Líney has held leadership positions in the catalysis and surface science communities. These have included chair and vice chair of the Pacific Coast Catalysis Society and executive board member of the AVS Surface Science Division. She is currently a member of the Advanced Light Source Proposal Study Panel, a co-program chair for the AVS Heterogeneous Catalysis Focus Topic, and a counselor for the ACS Division of Catalysis Science and Technology. 

Líney is passionate about mentoring, and she recently received OSU’s College of Engineering Graduate Mentoring Award and its Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor award. “I love working with students,” she says. “It’s a lot of fun to see them grow and share thoughts and ideas about research.”

Before joining OSU, Líney earned her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Iceland, and M.S. and Ph.D. in ChemE from UW. In her time in Seattle — as a student, postdoc, and on sabbatical — she worked in the labs of Eric Stuve and David Castner in ChemE, Lara Gamble in bioengineering, and Charles Campbell in chemistry.