McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor Benny Freeman is honored as a 2025 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow for the invention of new membranes for gas and water purification and resource recovery! Learn more >> bit.ly/Freeman_25NAI. Congratulations!

Texas ChE students & alumni: RSVP for a summer networking social >> bit.ly/HOUSocial_June24! Food & drinks provided. Sponsor Parker Hannifin is a global leader in motion and control technologies that provides precision-engineered solutions across multiple industries. Visit with Parker reps about their products/services or internship/career opportunities.

DETAILS:
Wednesday, June 24 | 5-7PM
Saint Arnold Brewing Company | *Investor's Pub
Houston, TX
RSVP: bit.ly/HOUSocial_June24

Congratulations to our Spring 2026 Merck Undergraduate Research Fellows:

Annika Anand | Nicholas Peppas Lab - Annika's research focuses on developing degradable nanocomposite hydrogels for self-timed, booster-free vaccine delivery.

Tanmay Savargaonkar | Adrianne Rosales Group - Tanmay works on developing fiber-hydrogel composites that can replicate the structure of connective tissue; these materials will allow us to study vasculogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels form.

Congratulations to you both Annika and Tanmay!

Texas ChE partners with Merck to create awards that support undergrad biotech research each semester.

Congratulations to Dean Roger T. Bonnecaze - on receiving the prestigious Eugene C. Bingham Medal from the Society of Rheology. Learn more about his contributions to materials processing and award here:

Horns all the way up for our very own, Dean Roger Bonnecaze 🤘
Dean Bonnecaze has earned the Eugene C. Bingham Medal, the top international award in rheology.

For more than two decades, he has led influential research on how materials flow under pressure — work that’s earned him worldwide respect and helped advance the field in meaningful ways.

He’ll be honored this October in Boston at the Society of Rheology annual meeting, where he’ll also deliver the prestigious Bingham Lecture.

Help us congratulate this momentous recognition for the Cockrell School of Engineering, the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, and, last but not least, our very own Dean Roger Bonnecaze!

Learn more about this top honor: https://news.utexas.edu/2026/05/26/cockrell-dean-to-receive-international-medal-for-rheology-research/

TEXAS ChE is hiring an Academic Advising Coordinator. This position provides leadership for the department’s advising and student support efforts, including managing the advising team, overseeing academic operations, and supporting programs that promote student success. Help shape our future >> https://bit.ly/ChE_SrAdv

Congratulations Class of 2026! You did it! It was an epic turnout of friends, family and faculty who came to celebrate our 2026 Texas ChE graduates. We are all so proud of your accomplishments. This is just your beginning... what starts here changes the world! Pics are live: bit.ly/ChE_GradPIX (

2026 Graduation Reception | May You did it! Celebrating the recent graduates of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering with faculty and family. Congratulations.

Professor Jennifer Maynard has been named the new chair of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, effective May 16, 2026.

Dr. Maynard is an expert in antibodies, and is widely recognized for her work in the development of protein therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in infectious diseases.

In 2015 she was named UT Austin Emerging inventor of the Year and in 2017 she became an American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers fellow.

Read more at bit.ly/maynardchair (or 🔗 in bio).

TEXAS ChE is HIRING: Human Resources Coordinator - this position will provide comprehensive administrative and HR support for our department. *See comments for more details or bit.ly/ChE_HR26.

Congrats to our spring Undergrad Poster Competition winners and participants:

1st Place | Anupama Subramanian, 3rd Year, "Harnessing Non-Traditional Yeasts for Enzymatic Hydrocarbon Metabolism" PI: Dr. Alper

2nd Place | Kilali Latter & Lucas Jabara, both 3rd year, "Multilayer H2-stable Ag+ Thin Film Composite Facilitated Transport Membranes for Olefin Paraffin Separations" PI: Dr. Brennecke

3rd Place | Gavin Hoffmann, 3rd Year, "Linking Output Characteristics to Spiking Dynamics in Organic Electrochemical Transistors" PI: Dr. Keitz

Special thanks to ExxonMobil representatives (and Texas ChE alumni!) for assisting as judges and for sponsoring the competition: Promise Eke (B.S. 2024), Michael Clark (B.S. 2018), Christopher McLaurin (B.S. 2021) and Adithya Chunangad (B.S. 2022). And thanks to Manuel Rosales (B.S. PGE 2008) and Ross Lanzini also from Exxon.