“ERVA is more important than ever as the nation faces unprecedented challenges in terms of health, energy, climate, and security, and it will help prepare us to meet these challenges.”
Roger T. Bonnecaze is the William and Bettye Nowlin Chair of Engineering in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his master’s and doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering. Between his master’s and doctorate, Bonnecaze was a project manager for Hydro Research Science, working on environmental fluid mechanics and designing and testing hydraulic structures. After his doctorate, Bonnecaze was a BP Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics at the University of Cambridge. He joined the faculty at UT Austin in 1993, advancing from assistant to chaired full professor.
He was chair of the John J. McKetta Jr. Department of Chemical Engineering UT Austin from 2005-2013. The end of his tenure as chair coincided with his successful bid for the Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Energy Technologies (NASCENT) National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, the first-ever NSF ERC led by the Cockrell School of Engineering at UT Austin. As co-director for seven years, he worked on and organized research with colleagues from several disciplines, engaged industrial partners in the center’s research and entrepreneurial activities, and coordinated the center’s educational programs for students at UT Austin and the community. He recently stepped down as NASCENT co-director to help launch SandBox Semiconductor, a start-up company spun out of the center based on research by one of his students, who is now the CEO.
Bonnecaze’s research interests include nanomanufacturing modeling and simulation and the rheology and behavior of complex fluids. He has won numerous awards, including the NSF Young Investigator Award, David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, the AIChE Thomas Baron Award, two Journal of Rheology Publication Awards, a Rheologica Acta Publication Award and numerous teaching awards. Bonnecaze is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Rheology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.