Christine S. Grant, professor of chemical and biomolecular Engineering and the inaugural associate dean of faculty advancement in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University and an alumna of Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, became president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in January 2022.

Grant (GT ChBE PhD 1989) succeeds 2021 President Deborah Grubbe, owner and president of Operations and Safety Solutions, LLC. Billy B. Bardin, global digitalization director at the Dow Chemical Company, will become 2022 president-elect, and will succeed Grant as AIChE president in 2023.

Within North Carolina State’s College of Engineering, Christine Grant is responsible for faculty development, promotion, and tenure. Her research focuses on surface and interfacial phenomena in the areas of electronic materials, polymers, and biomedical systems. She has also developed a green chemical engineering curriculum.

She has been widely recognized for broadening the participation, promotion, and retention of underrepresented minorities and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions. Her recent honors include the William W. Grimes Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from AIChE’s Minority Affairs Committee; the Dr. Joseph N. Cannon Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers; and the Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network’s Bevlee A. Watford Inclusive Excellence Award. 

Grant has been a visiting senior scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a grant expert and program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has also been a principal investigator on multiple NSF ADVANCE grants and served on the advisory boards of several ADVANCE universities. In this role, she promoted institutional transformation in STEM fields. 

She co-edited the book “Success Strategies from Women in STEM: A Portable Mentor,” and contributed chapters to the recent books “Growing Diverse STEM Communities: Methodologies, Impact and Evidence” and “Overcoming Barriers for Women of Color in STEM Fields.”

A Fellow and Life Member of AIChE, she has been a member of AIChE’s Board of Directors, the Chemical Technology Operating Council, the Environmental Division, the Awards Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Henry and Melinda Brown Endowment Steering Committee. She’s has also chaired AIChE’s Minority Affairs Committee.

Grant is also a Life Member of the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. She earned her Sc.B. from Brown University and her MS and PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering.