Joan Brennecke

Talk title: Separating gases with ionic liquids

Joan F. Brennecke is currently Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #16 in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She began her academic career at the University of Notre Dame after completing her Ph.D. and M.S. (1989 and 1987) degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B. S. at the University of Texas at Austin (1984).

Her research interests are primarily in the development of less environmentally harmful solvents.  These include supercritical fluids and ionic liquids. In developing these solvents, Dr. Brennecke’s primary interests are in the measurement and modeling of thermodynamics, thermophysical properties, phase behavior and separations.  Major awards include the 2001 Ipatieff Prize from the American Chemical Society, the 2006 Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the J. M. Prausnitz Award at the Eleventh International Conference on Properties and Phase Equilibria in Greece in May, 2007, the 2008 Stieglitz Award from the American Chemical Society, the 2009 E. O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the 2014 E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.  She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data since 2010.  Her 150+ research publications have garnered over 18,000 citations (ISI).  She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012.  She is currently serving as the Chair of The National Academies study on A Research Agenda for a New Era in Separations Science.