IPRIME names Chris Ellison as new faculty director
Ellison specializes in the field of polymer science and engineering with more than 180 scientific publications
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/16/2024) — Professor Chris Ellison has been named the new faculty director for the University of Minnesota Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME), a university/industry partnership supporting fundamental, collaborative research on materials.
Ellison is the Lanny and Charlotte Schmidt Endowed Chair Professor and Department Safety Officer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CEMS).
“Chris has been the program leader for the Microstructured Polymers (MP) program in IPRIME for the past eight years, and started his post-Ph.D. career in industry—experiences that will provide valuable perspective for the Faculty Director role,” said Satish Kumar, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in CEMS and former faculty director of IPRIME.
As faculty director, Ellison will be responsible for developing and executing a vision for all IPRIME activities and recruiting, as well as engaging and fostering interactions between member companies and faculty participants.
Ellison specializes in the field of polymer science and engineering. He and his team are developing more sustainable plastics, ranging from improved recycling strategies to new degradable materials. His research has led to more than 180 scientific publications that have been cited nearly 10,000 times and he holds more than 20 patents. His outstanding contributions to the field have been recognized with prestigious national awards, including the Norman Hackerman Award from the Welch Foundation, Owens Corning Early Career Award, DuPont Young Professor Award, 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, and National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
He won a TechConnect Innovation Award for developing a new recycling approach for mixed plastic waste, and is co-founder of Standup Energy in Austin, Texas. He serves on the Advisory Council for the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Iowa State University and the Technical Advisory Board for the Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing at Arizona State University.
He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and completed his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. Before joining the University as a faculty member in 2016, he was an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.