COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Vice Chancellor and Dean of Engineering Dr. G. Kemble Bennett announced that Dr. Thomas K. Wood has joined the Texas A&M Engineering faculty as professor and inaugural holder of the Mike O'Connor Chair II in Chemical Engineering.

Wood joins the faculty of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M. He was previously the Northeast Utilities Endowed Chair in Environmental Engineering Education at the University of Connecticut, and has also been on faculty at the University of California, Irvine.

Wood's research interests are in the areas of green chemistry and bioremediation -- specifically biofilm gene discovery using DNA microarrays; directed evolution of oxygenases for green chemistry and bioremediation; metabolic engineering of microorganisms for degrading chlorinated aliphatics; and genetically engineered biofilms to reduce the biocorrosion of metals. He has authored 100 peer-reviewed papers and recently received a $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study biofilms.

The holder of one U.S. patent (with several pending), Wood currently sits on the editorial board of Applied and Environmental Biotechnology. He has served as program chair or co-chair for programs of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In 1992, Wood received the U.S. Army Research Office Young Investigator Award and the National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award.

Wood holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, both in chemical engineering.

The Mike O'Connor Chair II in Chemical Engineering, established in 2000, is one of two in the department endowed by T. Michael "Mike" O'Connor, a Houston businessman whose interests include residential real estate development. A chemical engineering graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla, O'Connor is the visionary behind the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, internationally known for its research, education, service and outreach.

For more information, contact

Source: Thomas K. Wood
979/862-1588
Thomas.Wood@chemail.tamu.edu

Reporter: Lesley Kriewald
lesleyk@tamu.edu
(979) 845-5524

News Story 1255, November 9, 2005

Direct page link:
http://engineeringnews.tamu.edu/news/1255

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