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James W. Harris
James W. Harris
Assistant Professor, Hewson Engineering Faculty Fellow
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Alabama
Postdoctoral, University of Minnesota, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, 2019
Ph. D., Purdue University, Chemical Engineering, 2017
B. S., University of Virginia, Chemical Engineering, 2012
Leadership and Service
Early Career Advisory Board Member, Journal of Catalysis, 2025-2027
Member, The University of Alabama Faculty Senate, 2025-2027
Early Career Council Board Member, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2025-2027
President, Southeastern Catalysis Society, 2024-2025
Programming co-chair, AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division, 2024-2025
Alternate Councilor, ACS Division of Catalysis Science and Technology, 2024-2026
Website and Social Media co-chair, North American Catalysis Society's NAM29 meeting, 2024-2025
Co-Chair, Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Catalysis, 2018
Awards and Honors
Early Career Research Excellence & Innovation Award, The University of Alabama College of Engineering, 2025
Faculty Excellence in Professional Service Award, The University of Alabama College of Engineering, 2025
William H. Melson Award for Research Excellence, The University of Alabama Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, 2025
President’s Faculty Research Award, The University of Alabama, 2025
NSF CAREER Award, 2025
Hewson Engineering Faculty Fellow, The University of Alabama, 2024
Doctoral New Investigator Award, ACS Petroleum Research Fund, 2021
Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Oak Ridge Affiliated Universities, 2021-2022
Outstanding Mentor of undergraduate researchers, The University of Alabama, 2021
Biography
Dr. Harris grew up in Prospect, KY and received his B. S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2012. Dr. Harris completed his Ph. D. at Purdue University in 2017, under the advisement of Fabio Ribeiro, Rajamani Gounder, and W. Nicholas Delgass. His doctoral work focused on the synthesis, characterization and kinetics of oxidation reactions over Lewis acids incorporated into siliceous oxide matrices. While at Purdue, he developed expertise in catalyst synthesis, particularly in zeolite synthesis, spectroscopic methods to characterize catalysts, reactor design, and chemical kinetics. He then completed a postdoctoral stay in Professor Aditya Bhan's research group at the University of Minnesota, where he studied the role of chlorine on ethylene oxidation catalysis in order to develop quantitative kinetic models to design improved catalyst formulations. He started his independent career as an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Fall 2019.
Since joining UA, Dr. Harris has been engaged in teaching CHE354 and CHE554 (undergraduate and graduate chemical reaction engineering), CHE 493 (process controls), in mentoring undergraduate and graduate student researchers, and performing cutting edge research.
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