Invited Speakers Biographies

Invited Speakers Short Biographies

Biographies (in alphabetical order)

Walter G. Chapman is the William W. Akers Chair Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University.  He is known for his theories and molecular simulations to predict phase behavior, interfacial properties, and self-assembly of complex fluids in the chemical, energy, and polymer industries. Among his recognitions are the Humboldt Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Donald L. Katz award from the Gas Processors Association, multiple university wide teaching awards, and an Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Clemson University where he received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.  Walter joined the Rice faculty after a brief career with Shell Development Company.  His wife, two sons, and daughter-in-law are also engineers.

Christophe Coquelet has been a Professor of Engineering at IMT Mines Albi since late 2021. He directed the Thermodynamics of Processes Center at Mines Paris PSL between 2009 and late 2021. Additionally, he is a scientific co-coordinator of the research community at the Institut Mines Telecom (comprising all 5 School of Mines in France) on the theme of "Renewable Energy and Resources." He is a graduate engineer in Process Engineering from ENSIACET (1998) and a former student of ENS Cachan (1998-2001). He obtained his aggregation in physical sciences in 1999. He earned his Ph.D. from the Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria Laboratory at Mines Paris PSL in 2003. He obtained his HDR in 2008 and his professorship in 2013. His work mainly focuses on the thermodynamic aspects of natural gas processing, supercritical fluids, working fluids, air gas separation, CO2 capture, transport, and storage, as well as solvent research for the extraction of bio-sourced molecules. Since 2021, his work has also encompassed catalyst development, the use of supercritical fluids, the valorisation of organic/inorganic waste, and hydrometallurgical processes. Christophe Coquelet also teaches process engineering at IMT Mines Albi and the exploitation of phase diagrams and the use of thermodynamic models in the context of thermodynamics of systems and processes.

Tina Düren received her PhD in 2002 from the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, before spending two years as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Randy Snurr’s group at Northwestern University, USA. She joined the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer in 2004 and moved to the University of Bath, UK, in 2014 where she currently is a Professor in Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Centre for Integrated Materials, Processes and Structures. In her research, Tina uses molecular simulation techniques to study porous materials. Recent work includes the description of adsorption induced flexibility in MOFs and zeolites, as well as modelling synthesis and self-assembly processes of metal-organic framework and periodic mesoporous silicas. She is a member of the Council of the International Zeolite Association and its MOF commission and previously was the chair of the British Zeolite Association.

Jean-Noel Jaubert  is Professor of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics at ENSIC (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Industries Chimiques). A Grande Ecole like ENSIC is a state-run institution of higher education characterized by a highly selective admission procedure and is thus restricted to the best 10 % of high-school students. He was born in 1967 in Marseille, France and received his doctorate in 1993 from Aix-Marseille University (France). He is reviewer for over 80 leading international journals, member of the editorial board of five international peer–reviewed journals, and has published around 200 research articles in renowned international journals. Since 2010, he is the French delegate at the working party thermodynamics and transport properties of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering and currently runs the research group “Thermodynamics and Energy” of the LRGP (Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés) and chairs the French working party of thermodynamics. He organized several international conferences and is member of the International Steering Committee of ESAT (European Symposium on Applied Thermodynamics), JETC (Joint European Thermodynamics Conference) and JEEP (Joint European days on Equilibrium between Phases). His research interests include the development and parameterization of equations of state, the measurement and correlation of liquid-vapour equilibrium under high pressure, the development of the entropy scaling concept to correlate transport properties and the use of a product design approach to select efficient working fluids for innovative power and refrigeration cycles.

Clare McCabe received her bachelors and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Sheffield University. After postdoctoral and research faculty appointments at the University of Tennessee, she joined the Colorado School of Mines faculty as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in January 2002. In 2004, she moved to Vanderbilt University, where she rose through the ranks and was appointed the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Engineering and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering in 2017. In 2022 she moved to Heriot-Watt University as Bicentennial Professor. Her research interests focus on the use of molecular modeling techniques to understand and predict the thermodynamic and transport properties of complex fluids and materials. She has published more than 150 papers in archival journals and presented numerous invited and contributed talks at national and international conferences. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Institute of Biomedical Engineers. McCabe has also received awards for her undergraduate and graduate teaching at both the school and university level, is active in several professional societies and is a trustee of the educational non-profit foundation Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering Education (CACHE).

Stephanie Peper received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from TU Hamburg in Germany in 2006 under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerd Brunner followed by a post-doctoral position at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. In 2012, she was awarded a Habilitation in High-Pressure Thermodynamics and in 2014 she was appointed private lecturer in the field of thermodynamics both at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. Since 2010 she is a member of the High-Pressure Chemical Engineering working group and a member of the Thermodynamics working group since 2024, both of the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. She authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed journal papers in the fields of enzyme catalysis at high pressures, supercritical fluid chromatography, and high-pressure phase equilibria, which have been cited more than 1000 times. Her work in the field of high-pressure process engineering was awarded the Professor-Siegfried-Peter Prize in 2010. In 2012 she started her career with Bayer AG in Leverkusen, where she still works as Senior Expert of Properties and Applied Thermodynamics.

Doros Theodorou (orcid 0000-0002-4763-9739, Google Scholar) is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (NTUA).  He holds a Diploma from NTUA (1982), and M.S. (1983) and Ph.D. (1985) degrees from MIT.  He has served as professor at the Universities of California, Berkeley (1986-1995) and Patras (1991-2002) and associated faculty at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, FORTH/ICE-HT in Patras and NCSR “Demokritos” in Athens.
His research focusses on the development of new statistical mechanics-based computational techniques for understanding and predicting properties of materials based on their chemical constitution, with emphasis on polymers, amphiphiles, and nanoporous materials.  He has authored and co-authored 202 research papers, 33 chapters in books and review articles, 60 conference proceedings, and the books Simulation Methods for Polymers with M.J. Kotelyanskii  and Diffusion in Nanoporous Solids with  J. Κärger και D. Ruthven.  He represented Greece to the mobility of researchers programme of the European Union (1995-2004), has served as member of Panels PE8 and PE11 of the European Research Council (2015-2022) and member of the National Council of Research, Technology, and Innovation of Greece (2010-2013, 2020-2023).  He is also Vice President of the Bodossaki Foundation.​
His research has been recognised with the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the ΝSF (1988-1992), the Science Award of the Bodossaki Foundation in Chemistry (1996), the Danckwerts Lectureship of the AIChE (2006), the D. Medema Award of the Dutch PTN (2009), the Bird-Stewart-Lightfoot Lectureship of the University of Wisconsin (2013), the John M. Prausnitz Award in Applied Chemical Thermodynamics (2016), the John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecture (2016), the European Materials Medal of the Federation of European Materials Societies (2017), the DSM Life Time Achievement Award in Materials Sciences (2018), the 2018 Guggenheim Medal of the IChemE, the 2022 FOMMS Medal, and the 2023 Warren K. Lewis Lectureship at MIT.  In 2015 he was elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.