Dr. Mark A. Barteau, the recently appointed vice president for research at Texas A&M University and the Halliburton Chair in Engineering, will serve as professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry.
Barteau’s research focuses on chemical reactions at solid surfaces and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and energy processes. He has received numerous grants throughout his career from such prestigious institutions as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NASA.
Prior to joining Texas A&M, Barteau served as the DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research, professor of chemical engineering, professor of chemistry and a Dow Distinguished Fellow in Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Under his leadership, the University of Michigan Energy Institute launched several major initiatives including the formation of a comprehensive Battery Fabrication and Characterization User Facility, the University of Michigan Energy Survey and “Beyond Carbon Neutral,” a university-wide program integrating technological, biological and policy solutions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas concentrations. He is a frequent contributor of perspectives on energy and the environment to The Conversation, Fortune and NPR, among other media outlets.
Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2012, Barteau served as the senior vice provost for research and strategic initiatives at the University of Delaware, where he held the Robert L. Pigford Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering and was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry. In his leadership role, he was actively engaged in the development of funding and new facilities for several university-wide institutes, including biotechnology, rehabilitation and environmental institutes, and served as founding director of the University of Delaware Energy Institute. He chaired the Governor’s Energy Advisory Council’s Environmental Footprint Task Force, which prepared a five-year energy plan for the state of Delaware in 2009.
Barteau received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s and doctorate from Stanford University. He was an NSF Post-doctoral Fellow in physics at the Technische Universität München in Germany and has held visiting appointments at the University of Pennsylvania (chemical engineering) and the University of Auckland, New Zealand (chemistry).
Barteau has been widely recognized for his scientific and professional leadership in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and was named in 2008 as one of the “100 Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Alpha Chi Sigma and Allan P. Colburn Awards from AIChE, the International Catalysis Award from the International Association of Catalysis Societies, the Ipatieff Prize and the Victor K. LaMer Award from the American Chemical Society, the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis from the North American Catalysis Society and the Canadian Catalysis Lecture Tour Award of the Catalysis Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is a fellow of both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Barteau’s national and international leadership roles have included chairmanship of the National Research Council (NRC) committee that produced the 2013 report “Effects of Diluted Bitumen on Crude Oil Transmission Pipelines.” He was one of 17 members of the NRC committee that authored the report “Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.” He currently serves on two National Academies’ studies developing research agendas for carbon dioxide removal and the utilization of carbon waste streams. He was co-chair of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable and chair of the Council of Chemical Sciences for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. He currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology and on the science advisory board for the National Institute of Clean and Low-Carbon Energy in China.