Adam Moule named Joe and Essie Smith Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering
Professor Adam Moule will be the next Joe and Essie Smith Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering. The endowed chair honors early-career faculty members with established potential as researchers and scholars in chemical engineering. Title holders receive extra funds toward their research, teaching and professional activities to further their leadership in the department, on campus and in their field.
The endowed professorship was established in 1996 with a gift from Joe and Essie Smith. Joe M. Smith, a professor emeritus of chemical engineering, was a National Academy of Engineering member, a founding member of the UC Davis College of Engineering and the inaugural chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. The gift from him and his wife is another addition to his long legacy at UC Davis.
“It means a lot to me to be given the title,” said Moule. “I can feel like an outsider in chemical engineering because my background and research are a little different, but this is a reminder that what my group does is valuable.”
Moule has described his research as an interface between chemical engineering and materials science. He is interested in using solutions to process and pattern organic electronic materials for devices such as LEDs, photovoltaics, transistors and chemical sensors. The group uses structural and dynamic measurement techniques to assess processing and patterning methods and their effect on material shape and device design.
He plans to use the endowed chair funds to support multiple graduate and undergraduate students at UC Davis, as well as exchange students from Germany, who are working in his lab and conducting valuable research.
Moule received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Oregon and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UC Berkeley before working as a Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in Germany for two years. Since joining UC Davis in 2007, he has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, graduated 8 Ph.D. students, and been named a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow.
Moule will hold the Smith Chair title for five years before the next chair is chosen. The title was previously held by Professor William Ristenpart.