Alexandridis elected fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineers

BUFFALO, N.Y — Paschalis Alexandridis, PhD, a chemical engineer and faculty member at the University at Buffalo, has been elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Fellow is AIChE's highest grade of membership. Recipients are chosen by election by the AIChE Board of Directors. Election as an AIChE fellow recognizes outstanding “service to the profession” and “significant professional accomplishment.”

Alexandridis, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been recognized for:

• Chemical engineering fundamental research on surfactant and polymer self-assembly and its translation into formulations, nanomaterials synthesis and drug delivery applications.
• Educational accomplishments at UB, such as the development of the chemical product design course, his dedicated mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students and the refocusing and growth of the chemical engineering graduate program.
• Sustained service to the chemical engineering profession in multiple roles including leadership positions as AIChE Area 1C: “Interfacial Phenomena” chairperson and AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum (NSEF) executive committee member.

Founded in 1908, AIChE is the world's leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 50,000 members from over 100 countries. AIChE will present Alexandridis with a fellows plaque and pin at its annual meeting Nov. 15 in San Francisco.

A chemical engineer specializing in soft materials, complex fluids and nanotechnology, Alexandridis has been a faculty member in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) since 1997.

His research utilizes molecular interactions and supramolecular assemblies to develop products with desired properties and function. Ongoing projects address structuring via self-assembly and directed assembly, nanocomposites, ionic liquid solvents, polymer electrolytes and polymer dissolution.

Alexandridis has authored more than 150 journal articles and 65 conference proceedings, edited two books and given more than 160 invited lectures worldwide. He is co-inventor of 10 patents on pharmaceutical formulations, superabsorbent polymers, and metallic and semiconductor nanomaterials. His work has been cited over 10,000 times.

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), Alexandridis received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity (2011), American Chemical Society’s Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal (2010), Bodossaki Foundation Academic Prize in Applied Science (2005), UB Exceptional Scholar Award (2002), Sigma Xi International Young Investigator Award (2002), Japan Research Institute of Material Technology Lecturer Award (2001) and National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1999).

His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Petroleum Research Fund, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, Dow Chemical, Bausch & Lomb and Kao Corp.

Named an honorary adjunct professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2011, Alexandridis was also a guest researcher at the Tokyo University of Science, Shinshu University and the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck Society in Germany.

At UB, Alexandridis has served as director of graduate studies in chemical engineering, director of the materials science and engineering program, and associate dean for research and graduate education in SEAS. He has mentored more than 60 undergraduate and 55 graduate students. He received the American Society for Engineering Education Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award (1999), the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2006) and the UB Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award (2012).

Alexandridis graduated from National Technical University in Athens, Greece, and earned master's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He did postdoctoral research at Lund University, Sweden.