Dear alumni and friends of the UF Department of Chemical Engineering,
I am delighted to share a selection of this year’s stories of achievements and impact by our faculty, students and alumni.
Our faculty continues to excel and garner recognition for their contributions to the field of chemical engineering, with several faculty members elected as fellows of major professional societies. Our students and student groups similarly continue to excel, with two of our current PhD students being awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and with our ChemE Car and ChemE Cube teams winning regional and national competitions. Two of our recent alumni share their experiences transitioning to entrepreneurship and academia.
Finally, we are excited by the completion of the chemical engineering student center ground floor repair project and the start of the complete remodeling of the main chemical engineering building. It has been an exciting year!
As I approach the end of my eighth year as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, I reflect on what has been accomplished and what I would like to achieve in the next 10 years of my career. With support from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering leadership, the University of Florida, its Board of Trustees and our state government, I’ve had the privilege of recruiting 15 new faculty members, growing our ranks from 22 in 2017 to our current 28. Together, we were able to meet our research and teaching mission during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we increased the size of our Ph.D. program while simultaneously increasing doctoral student stipends. This resulted in a marked increase in research expenditures and output.
Most recently, we secured over $44 million in funding to modernize the department’s facilities, and, with the help of the college, we’ve identified temporary laboratories to house our experiential learning courses and research programs. This will significantly reduce the time and cost associated with the building renovation by allowing us to vacate the chemical engineering building this summer.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the department, college and university during this exciting time.
However, while I am proud of these mutual accomplishments, I am increasingly interested in returning to a career focused on teaching and scholarship. For this reason, I am stepping down as department chair. I look forward to continuing to contribute to our great institution through my research and scholarship, and I am grateful to our colleague, Rich Dickinson, Ph.D., for accepting the role of interim department chair starting this fall.
Sincerely,
Carlos