Principal Investigator
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
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), in mentoring undergraduate and graduate student researchers, and performing cutting edge research. He has been recognized as a Outstanding Mentor of undergraduate researchers by the University of Alabama, and has been awarded the 2021-2022 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award by the Oak Ridge Affiliated Universities and the ACS Petroleum Research Fund's Doctoral New Investigator award in recognition of ongoing research in the Harris Lab.
Dr. Harris currently serves as the President of the Southeastern Catalysis Society, as a programming co-chair for the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division, as a website and social media co-chair for the North American Catalysis Society's NAM29 meeting, and as an alternate councilor for the ACS Division of Catalysis Science and Technology.