Auburn Engineering dean and chemical engineering professor named American Institute of Chemical Engineers fellows
Published: Sep 11, 2024 7:40 AM
By Joe McAdory
Mario Eden, dean of engineering and McMillan Chair, and Virginia Davis, Breeden professor of chemical engineering, were recently elected American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) fellows — the organization’s highest membership grade.
AIChE fellow candidates are nominated by their peers and must have significant chemical engineering experience, have demonstrated long-term excellence in the profession and held Senior membership in the society for at least three years.
“We are immensely proud of Drs. Eden and Davis,” said Selen Cremaschi, Department of Chemical Engineering chair. “This prestigious recognition is a testament to their exceptional contributions to the field of chemical engineering, their dedication to advancing research and their unwavering commitment to educating the next generation of engineers. Their achievements reflect the excellence and innovation that define our university, and we are fortunate to have such distinguished faculty members leading by example.”
Eden and Davis join Professor Thomas Hanley and Visiting Professor Joseph Shaeiwitz as AIChE fellows currently on Auburn’s chemical engineering faculty.
“I’m very grateful and humbled by this honor,” said Eden, who previously served as professor, and later Department of Chemical Engineering chair before being named dean of engineering in April 2023. “For this organization, it’s not just about individual accomplishments or accolades, it’s also about what you have done for the profession. Knowing that your peers value your service as well as your professional contributions is very gratifying.”
Davis also cherishes the recognition.
“It really is quite rewarding to have associates recognize me as being worthy of this tremendous honor,” said Davis. “The honor is a validation of our hard work not only in leadership capacities within the organization, but also our tangible contributions to the field of chemical engineering.”
Previously serving as AIChE senior members, Eden and Davis are no strangers to recognition from AIChE. Davis held leadership roles in AIChE’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum and was selected for their Young Investigator Award in 2012. Eden has served in various AIChE leadership roles, including Chair of AIChE’s Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) division, and was a recipient of their Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2014 as well as their Award for Excellence and Service in 2021. Eden is also an elected trustee and current Vice President of Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) and co-chaired the 2014 Foundations of Computer Aided Process Design (FOCAPD) and the 2018 Process Systems Engineering (PSE) conferences.
Davis’ passion for AIChE started as an undergraduate when she was president of the Tulane University AIChE student chapter. She then enjoyed a career in industry for 15 years before returning to school for her PhD and becoming an assistant professor at Auburn in 2005.
Her research has two thrusts: soft matter research focused on advanced manufacturing of polymers and nanomaterials and STEM education research focused on STEM identity development.
“I enjoy having the opportunity to do research on nanomaterials and polymer recycling and things that apply to global challenges in clean water and energy,” she said. “I get to apply fundamental chemical engineering and science principles to those routes and get to mentor students. It’s important that the work we do contributes to the state’s workforce development to help solve these great societal challenges.”
Davis is passionate about STEM outreach as her work with the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair and collaborative research to boost agricultural education in middle school classrooms can attest.
“I began outreach projects in my first year out of college when I was working for Shell Chemicals as they wanted people who would go into the schools and talk to children about science and mentoring science competitions, so that’s definitely a passion of mine,” she said. “The outreach and educational research and development work I do is grounded within chemical engineering and, of course, chemical engineering is an extraordinarily broad discipline where our principles can be applied to almost every industry and global challenge on the planet.”
Eden’s area of research expertise falls within process systems engineering, focusing on process synthesis, process design and molecular design. In his career, Eden has established a strong record of scholarly productivity and academic achievement, including three edited books, more than 175 refereed publications and nearly 450 invited talks and conference presentations. He has secured nearly $30 million in extramural grants and contracts as principal investigator or co-principal investigator from multiple federal and industrial sources.
“Chemical process synthesis, process design and molecular design are computational in nature,” Eden said. “The field focuses on developing methods and tools to solve problems more effectively and solve problems that existing methods can’t. I’ve always enjoyed working on solving problems that existing methods are unable to solve, but also — solving and considering problems, or challenges, in a different, non-traditional way. It’s important that we, as researchers, ask, ‘Why are we doing things this way?’ Maybe it is the right way, but it needs to be regularly questioned to ensure that our solution methods are as efficient as possible.
“Auburn University provides an environment where all faculty can establish themselves, grow their careers and be successful. That’s something we should all be proud of.”
New AIChE Fellows will be recognized at the organization’s annual meeting, Oct. 27-31, in San Diego.
Media Contact: , jem0040@auburn.edu, 334.844.3447
Mario Eden, dean of engineering, and Virginia Davis, Breeden Professor of chemical engineering.
