James Pfaendtner
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Pfaendtner earned a doctorate in chemical engineering at Northwestern University (NU), where he participated in an NSF IGERT program on Virtual Tribology. He did his thesis research on the modeling of complex reacting systems and development of algorithms to rapidly and accurately estimate chemical reactivity using quantum mechanics.
Dr. Pfaendtner brings an interest in biomolecular engineering and the modeling of biological systems to the department of Chemical Engineering. His computational work in biomolecular engineering fills a long-standing need in the department. Dr. Pfaendtner’s research will address issues such as production of biofuels, development of novel biomaterials, and investigation of a new class of peptides as potential drug compounds.
Dr. Pfaendtner was most recently a postdoctoral research fellow in the NSF’s International Research Fellows Program working under the supervision of Michele Parrinello, a professor at ETH Zürich, and Gregory A. Voth, a professor at the University of Utah. His recent work involves using computer simulation to study large proteins and protein complexes, and developing methods for systematic multiscale modeling of biological systems.
Dr. Pfaendtner participated in NU’s Teaching Apprentice Program and was voted Teaching Assistant of the Year in 2005.
New Faculty 2009 by Department
Aeronautics & Astronautics
Antonino Ferrante
Setthivoine You
Bioengineering
Barry Lutz
Kim A. Woodrow
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Linda Ng Boyle (also ISE)
Cynthia Chen
Michael Dodd
Erkan Istanbulluoglu
Andrey Shcherbina
Chemical Engineering
James Pfaendtner
Computer Science & Engineering
Su-In Lee
Anup Rao
Electrical Engineering
M.P. (Anant) Anantram
Industrial & Systems Engineering
Linda Ng Boyle (also CEE)
Mechanical Engineering
Brian Polagye