125th Anniversary Symposium Series
The 2nd Symposium celebrates Deans of Engineering
with ties to ChBE@GT (alumni and/or former faculty)
Clifford L. Henderson
Dean, Styslinger College of Engineering
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Alabama
Jim Pfaendtner
Louis Martin-Vega Dean, College of Engineering
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
North Carolina State University
Mary Rezac
Dean, School of Engineering
Professor, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
University of Kansas
Henderson Bio:
Dr. Clifford L. Henderson is currently the Dean of the Styslinger College of Engineering at The University of Alabama and a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Prior to joining the University of Alabama in 2022, he previously served for six years as Department Chair for the Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering at the University of South Florida and as a Professor for 18 years in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dean Henderson received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his M.S. and Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.
He has served in a variety of national leadership roles across various science and engineering organizations, including two years of service as a Program Director and Expert for the National Science Foundation in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) and the Functional Materials Program.
Dean Henderson’s research has focused on problems at the intersection of chemical engineering, organic and polymeric materials science, and micro- and nanotechnology in a variety of application areas including electronics, energy, and biotechnology. He has published more than 200 papers on the various topics related to his research, given more than 300 seminars and talks world-wide related to his research, and he has supervised and graduated 35 Ph.D. students, 5 M.S. students, and more than 75 undergraduate research students over the course of his career thus far.
Dean Henderson has received numerous awards and recognition for his research and service work including an NSF CAREER Award, the inaugural Intel/STC Outstanding Lithography Researcher Award, the AIChE Herb Epstein Award, and the AIChE Gary Leach Award. Dean Henderson has been elected as a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) in 2010, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2017, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2018.
Pfaendtner Bio:
Jim Pfaendtner is the Louis Martin-Vega Dean of Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. With more than 11,000 students, 750 faculty and staff members and more than $200M in annual research expenditures, NC State’s College of Engineering is internationally recognized for the excellence of its research, education and outreach programs.
He joined NC State from the University of Washington (UW), where he served as the Connie and Steve Rogel Endowed Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
As chair, he led departmental scholarly and educational activities, including the implementation of a broad strategic initiative in infusing research and teaching with machine learning, AI and data science; expanding and strengthening the visibility and role of the department’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee; expanding the department’s philanthropic work; raising more than $10 million in major gifts including five new graduate fellowships; and elevating the UW College of Engineering’s efforts in faculty affairs and postdoctoral development.
He also held appointments at UW as professor of chemistry, associate vice provost for research computing and senior data science fellow at the university’s eScience Institute, and at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a senior scientist.
Pfaendtner serves on the Northwestern University Chemical and Biological Engineering External Advisory Board and is senior editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. In 2022, he became a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences and received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum Impact Award. Other awards and honors he has received include the University of Washington College of Engineering Faculty Junior Innovator Award, the University of Washington Presidential Distinguished Teaching Award, the American Chemical Society OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, and he was named a U.S. National Academy of Science Kavli Fellow.
Pfaendtner’s research has focused on using computer simulations to understand and control molecular scale driving forces for a wide range of applications spanning biotechnology to advanced materials. His lab at UW helped develop new methods to expand the capabilities of molecular simulation and use advanced research computing resources to solve challenging problems in the area of computational molecular science.
Pfaendtner holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University. He completed a National Science Foundation international postdoctoral fellowship with a focus on “multiscale modeling of conformational change in macromolecular assemblies.”
Rezac Bio:
Mary Rezac serves as Dean of Engineering at the University of Kansas. She joined KU in March 2024 after seven years as dean of Washington State University’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture.
At KU, Rezac is responsible for managing the academic programs that support more than 3,500 students, enabling research activities, and advancing the school’s strategic initiatives in energy, security, sustainability, and biomedical engineering.
Rezac earned a doctorate and master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Kansas State. Early in her career, she held a research position at Phillip’s Petroleum Company.
She began her academic career at Georgia Tech where she served as an assistant and associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Throughout her career, she has focused on ensuring that every student, staff, and faculty member have access to effective mentoring to ensure their individual and collective success.
