Broadbelt to Deliver Prestigious Danckwerts Lecture
The speech is scheduled for October 28
Northwestern Engineering’s Linda Broadbelt will deliver the 2024 P. V. Danckwerts Lecture at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) annual meeting in San Diego.
Broadbelt, Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor and professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, will give the talk “The Confluence of Kinetic Modeling and Data Science: Reaction Pathway Analysis of the Conversion of Macromolecules” on October 28. Broadbelt’s remarks will focus on mechanistic modeling of the conversion of macromolecules for recycling and upcycling, the design of pathways for synthesis of advantaged small molecules, and how data science can be leveraged for kinetic modeling and reaction pathway analysis.
“I am tremendously honored to be selected as the AIChE Danckwerts Lecturer,” Broadbelt said. “AIChE has been an invigorating and inviting professional home for me for many years, so to be recognized by my chemical engineering colleagues in this way is momentous to me.”
Broadbelt’s research group emphasizes understanding complex reacting systems by linking macroscopic observations to microscopic phenomena. They use a combination of experiments and theory to study large-scale reaction systems, polymeric transformations, and catalytic processes. To manage the complexity, they develop automated tools for quantitative analysis and molecular-level investigation.
The P. V. Danckwerts Lecture was established in 1985 to honor Peter V. Danckwerts as a leading scholar in the field of chemical engineering, former Chairman of the Board of Chemical Engineering Science, and the past president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Previous Danckwerts Lecturers include Julio M. Ottino, Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and (by courtesy) professor of mechanical engineering, and former dean of the McCormick School of Engineering, who delivered the talk in 2000.