On December 20, 2014, the Purdue Board of Trustees ratified the appointment of Dr. Michael Harris as the Reilly Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Dr. Linda Wang as the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Harris received his PhD degree from the University of Tennessee in 1992. After service at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in positions of increasing technical and supervisory responsibilities during 1981-95, and at the University of Maryland during 1996-2002, he joined the Purdue faculty in 2002 as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor rank in 2006. He has distinguished himself with outstanding research, teaching and service. His main areas of research are nanoparticle technology and colloid and interfacial phenomena, where he specializes in the synthesis, characterization and use of nanoscale particles. His research includes both experimental and modeling-computational studies. He is well-known for his use of SAXS, dynamic light scattering and NMR methods to quantitatively understand the nucleation and formation of nanoscale particles. He has authored more than 90 archival journal publications and has 10 issued patents. He has presented 25 invited academic seminars and 138 talks at professional society meetings. He has graduated 21 PhD students and 8 MS thesis students, and is currently advising or co-advising 4 PhD students. In addition, he has advised an impressive 131 undergraduates in research. During his career at Purdue, Dr. Harris has served as PI or co- PI of research grants with total budget $13.8 million. His grants are from highly competitive sponsors such as NSF, DOE and NIST; he is an active participant in the NSF ERC on Structured Organic Particulate Solids (SOPS).

In professional recognition, Dr. Harris received the NSF CAREER Award (1997), and the CoE Mentoring Excellence (2006) and Research Team Excellence awards (2010). He was designated a Purdue University Faculty Scholar (2003-2007). From the AIChE Minority Affairs Committee, he received the Grimes Award (2005), Black Achievers Award (2008) and the Distinguished Service Award (2009). He was elected Fellow of AIChE (2009) and serves as Associate Editor for two journals, Chemical Engineering Letters and Journal of Nanomaterials. He also served as a Director of AIChE’s Materials Engineering and Science Division (2003-2005). Finally, he has provided exemplary service to the School, College and the University, most notably as Chair of the Junior Faculty Council (2002-2006) and as Associate Dean of Engineering for Undergraduate Education (2006-present); as Chair of the School’s Graduate Recruiting Committee (2002-2006) and Director of Graduate Studies (2012-2014). 

Dr. Wang received her PhD degree from the University of Minnesota in 1978. She joined the Purdue faculty in 1980, was promoted to Associate Professor rank in 1985 and Professor rank in 1992. She has distinguished herself with outstanding research, teaching and service. Her area of research is separation science and technology, where she specializes in adsorption and multicomponent chromatography. Her research includes both experimental and modeling-computational studies. She is well-known for her pioneering research in simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography, and has successfully applied it to investigate important and difficult separations such as insulin purification, recovery of polycarbonates and flame retardants from electronic wastes, and high-purity rare earth elements. She has authored 109 archival journal publications and 6 book chapters. She also has 2 awarded patents and 4 provisional patent applications. She has presented 32 invited academic seminars and 58 invited talks at industrial and national laboratories. She has graduated 23 PhD students and 25 MS thesis students, and is currently advising or co-advising 3 PhD students. During her career at Purdue, Dr. Wang has served as PI or co-PI of research grants with total budget $7.9 million. Her grants are from highly competitive sponsors such as NSF and DOE, and also from industrial sources such as Dow, Abbott, Lilly and Sabic.

In professional recognition, Dr. Wang received the NSF Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers (1991) and the Violet Haas Award (2008) from Purdue. She has been elected Fellow of AIMBE (2000) and AIChE (2011). She chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Reactive Polymers (1989) and served on the editorial board of the Journal of Reactive Polymers (1989-95). She has also served professional societies in leadership roles, including as a Director of the International Adsorption Society (2001-2007) and many leadership roles in the AIChE Separations Division, most recently serving as Division Chair (2013). Finally, she has provided excellent service to the School and College, particularly as Chair of the School’s Undergraduate Committee (1996-2001) and of the PhD Qualifying Exam Committee (2005-2007); at the College level, among others, she served as Chair of the WFEC Head Candidate Interviews several times and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee (2005-2008).