Faculty Directory

Dr. Hu Yang

Department Chair, Professor, Linda and Bipin Doshi Chair

Research Interests

Biomaterials; Drug and Gene Delivery; Nanomedicine; Pharmaceutical Engineering

Drug and Gene Delivery Laboratory

Dr. Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Curator’s Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering and Computing Distinguished Professor, AIChE Fellow

Research Interests

‌Reactor Engineering; Transport-Kinetic Integration; Advanced Measurement and Computational Techniques

Dr. Hany El-Azab

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Nanomaterials, Magnetic Nanoparticles, Reaction Kinetics, Nanotechnology, Graphene, Heterogeneous catalysis, Microwave-assisted Synthesis, Micro Reactor Technology, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Chemical Kinetics, Flow Chemistry, Metal Oxides, Cross-coupling Reactions

Dr. Daniel Forciniti

Professor, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs

Research Interests

Molecular simulations of biological molecules at liquid/solid interfaces, light and neutron scattering of biological molecules, the molecular basis of disease, purification of bio-macromolecules

Dr. Douglas Ludlow

Professor

Research Interests

Surface Characterization of Adsorbents and Catalysts; Applications of Fractal Geometry to Surface Morphology

Dr. Christi Patton Luks

Associate Chair, Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Engineering Education Pedagogies; Sustainable Solutions to Practical Problems

Dr. Monday U. Okoronkwo

Associate Professor & Interim Director Core Facility for Advanced Materials Characterization

Research Interests

Cement and Concrete Chemistry; Materials and Nanotechnology; Separations; Energy and Environment; Complex Fluids and Rheology; Colloids and Interfacial Engineering.

Matthew Senter

Lecturer

Research Interests

Molecular Modeling for Bioseparation Applications

Dr. Joseph Smith

Laufer Endowed Energy Chair Professor

Research Interests

Hybrid energy systems, Fuels combustion and gasification, Industrial gas flare design, operation, and regulation, Process modeling, monitoring, control, and operation

Dr. Mark Towler

Doshi Professor

Research Interests

Medical Devices and Diagnostics, Glass Science

Dr. Jee-Ching Wang

Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Research

Research Interests

Composite Nanoparticles, Complex Fluids, Porous Media, Food Engineering, Biomolecular Transport and adsorption, Molecular Modeling and Simulation Methodologies

Dr. Hossein Abedsoltan

Assistant Teaching Professor

Research Interests

waste management, catalysis, reaction engineering, instrumentation & methodology, and machine learning in materials science

Dr. Amber Pete

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Bioremediation, Nanomaterials, Oil spills, Microplastics, Environmental microbiology, Colloids and interface science, Biofilm formation at liquid-liquid interfaces, Biofilm formation at solid-liquid interfaces

Dr. Parveen Bazard

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Auditory Neuroscience, Biotherapeutic Interventions, Medical Imaging, Neural Prosthetic Devices

Dr. Mahmoud Moharam

Assistant Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Reactor Engineering, Environmental wastewater treatment and reuse, Thermal-hydraulics and safety of nuclear systems, Engineering Education

Affiliated and Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Haider Al-Rubaye

Visiting Scholar

Biography

Haider is a chemical engineer. He received his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Technology in Baghdad, Iraq and his Ph.D from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He has gained valuable experience relating to hybrid energy systems, biomass gasification, biodigestion, and Carbon Black production. Haider currently works as a senior researcher in Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology and a Senior Process Engineer at Elevated Analytics Consulting.

Dr. Baojun Bai

Curators’ Distinguished Professor, Lester Birbeck Endowed Chair Professor, Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests

Water management, conformance control, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), CO2 EOR and Storage, fluid flow in porous media, and
unconventional oil and gas development.

For additional information regarding Dr. Bai's research, please visit his website, or select here for publications.

Anthony Convertine

Roberta and G. Robert Couch Assistant Professor 

Research Interests

Development of versatile new drug delivery technologies with unprecedented therapeutic activity and specificity, developing new polymeric materials, theranostics, and regenerative medicine.

Brian Donley

Manager-Operational Excellence, Coviden Healthcare

Biography

Education:

BS ChE 1987, University of Missouri-Rolla

MBA 2000, Washington University

Brian started his career with the Ethyl Corporation in Wood River, Illinois where he worked as a Process Engineer. While there he completed process designs for $22 million in capital expansion projects, including two automation systems. From 1992-2002, Brian worked for Afton Chemical (formerly Ethyl Corporation). He progressed from Project Engineer to Senior Area Operations Supervisor to Health, Safety, and Environmental Manager/IT & Automation Manager. While with Afton, Brian developed statistical techniques for improving safety performance, reducing the plant’s recordable injury rate to the lowest in ten years. He improved the plant’s emergency response systems, including a comprehensive security upgrade and he was responsible for budgeting and cost management. In 2002, Brian went to work for Coviden Healthcare (formerly Tyco Healthcare-Mallinckrodt). He started as a director of Health, Safety and Environmental where he was responsible for all health, safety, security, and environmental programs at a major chemical production facility. In 2004, Brian was promoted to Manager – Operational Excellence where he was responsible for directing Sigma Six and Lean implementation and coached 52 Sigma Six/Lean candidates and managed two direct reports. In 2007, Brian was promoted again to Manager – Operational Excellence (DFSS) where he directed Design for Six Sigma implementation at the global business unit level for Imaging Solutions research and development.

Dr. Fateme Rezaei

Professor, University of Miami

Research Interests

Adsorption, Energy Efficient Separation Processes, Process Design, Modeling and Optimization

Keith G. Tomazi

Technical Fellow

Biography

Education:

BS ChE 1981, University of Missouri-Rolla

MS ChE 1991, University of Missouri-Rolla

Ph.D. ChE 1993, University of Missouri-Rolla

After graduation, Keith began his career with Mallinckrodt Specialty Chemicals Company in St. Louis, Missouri. He started as a process in organics and inorganics manufacturing units, including specialty industrial chemicals as well as FDA-validated medical products. In August of 1989, Keith returned to the University of Missouri-Rolla as a full-time graduate student. He was supported by two industrial fellowships and a Department of Education Fellowship. In January 1994, Keith began working for Mallinckrodt Chemicals, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. He started as a process development engineer in synthetic peptides, and bulk narcotic drug manufacturing. He invented a novel multi-kilogram solid-phase synthesis reactor, developed a project scope for a multi-kilogram peptide manufacturing facility. In 1996, he was promoted to Principal Process Development Engineer. Keith developed over $5,000,000 worth of cost reductions in two existing products and developed a crystallization process for a potent compound that allowed the elimination of the milling step. In 2007, Keith was promoted to Technical Fellow. In addition to his other duties, he is currently serving as core team leader for site Chemical Reactivity Hazards Team, and he is helping develop site policies on hazardous reactions, including emergency relief sizing.

Dr. Dave Westenberg

Professor

Research Interests

Rhizosphere microbiology/ Antibacterial materials/ Microbiology education

Dr. Rahman Almusafir

Adjunct Professor

Biography

Rahman Almusafir holds a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in 2013 and an M.S. & B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Technology - Baghdad, Iraq. He joined Missouri S&T in January 2009 from Washington University in Saint Louis (WashU) as a senior member of the Very High-Temperature Reactor (VHTR) consortium for the Next (4th) Generation Nuclear Energy. Dr. Almusafir has utilized his skills/expertise in scale-up/scale-down of chemical reactor systems and their performances in establishing from scratch some of the advanced measurement techniques and the pilot-scale facilities of Professor Al-Dahhan’s laboratories in various multiphase flow systems at Missouri S&T.

In November 2016, Dr. Almusafir began working for Brewer Science, Inc (BSI), as a global technology leader in the semiconductor and microelectronics industry sector of headquarter in Rolla, MO. Currently, he is serving as a Principal Process Engineer-Team Leader at BSI of leading and facilitating a team of industrial experts for an advancing equipment technology operation, developing/optimizing & scaling up new chemical processes, and improving existing ones of mixing, separation, extraction, purification, and filtration processes.

Dr. Hongyan Ma

Kummer Impact Professor; Benavides Scholar; Associate Professor, Materials Engineering

Research Interests

Future cements (cement efficiency enhancing strategies, novel supplementary cementitious materials, and alternative cements); solid waste upcycling; massive CO2 capture, utilization, and mineralization; thermal energy storage and micro-grid integration; materials characterization; multi-scale modeling; concrete durability; NDT and sensing; nano- and biological technologies in construction; and carbon-negative recovery of critical minerals (e.g., Ni, Co, Li, and Cu).

Dr. James D. Sterling

Vice Provost and Dean of Kummer College

Biography

Dr. James Sterling joined Missouri S&T in 2024 from the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California, which is a member of the Claremont University Consortium. He joined Keck as a founding faculty member in 2000 and served in many capacities, including director of the school’s intellectual property and technology transfer committee and its Ph.D. program. He earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1987.