Sponsor Spotlights: Columbia University

Established in 1754, Columbia University is the oldest university in New York and a part of the Ivy League, along with Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, and other prestigious institutions. Columbia has a long list of outstanding alumni who contributed significantly to the field of Chemical Engineering, including the Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir (surface chemistry), Colin Fink (chromium-plating, electrochemistry), and Elmer Gaden (the father of biochemical engineering) to name a few. Building on this solid foundation, the Chemical Engineering program at Columbia is highly interdisciplinary with over 20 faculty doing research in electrochemistry, molecular design, biophysics, soft matter, protein engineering and genomics with applications in energy, environment and sustainability, and health care.

Beside its reputation as one of the top Chemical Engineering programs in the country, the department also values diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as it strives to eliminate biases and prejudice in academia, as well as nourishing a collaborative environment for research and education. In order to further this mission, the department has established The Mateo Williams Diversity Award and DEI travel funds to support Chemical Engineering scholars with their endeavors. 

For the 2024 AIChE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference at UMBC, we are pleased to have the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University as one of our Gold sponsors. Dr. Scott Banta, a UMBC alumni and now the Chair of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, has made time out of his busy schedule to be our keynote speaker on Sunday. We really appreciate your generosity and we look forward to having Columbia’s staff, faculty, and students at the conference!