Building a Sustainable, Circular, and Low-Carbon Chemical Industry
Dionisios G. Vlachos
Unidel Dan Rich Chair in Energy Professor of
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Director, Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation
Director, Delaware Energy Institute
University of Delaware
Friday, October 23, 2026
3:00 p.m., 66-110, (2:30 p.m. Reception)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[Poster]
Bio
Dionisios (Dion) G. Vlachos is the Unidel Dan Rich Energy Chaired Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, where he also serves as Director of the Delaware Energy Institute (DEI). From 2009 to 2024, he directed the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy.
Vlachos received his five-year diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in 1987, followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1990 and 1992, and a postdoctoral appointment at Minnesota’s Army High-Performance Computing Research Center. He began his academic career at the University of Massachusetts in 1993, was promoted to associate professor in 1998, and joined the University of Delaware in 2000. Over his career, he has held visiting appointments at Princeton University (spring 2000), Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital (spring 2007), the University of Minnesota as the George Pierce Distinguished Professor (fall 2007), and EPFL (fall 2022). At Delaware, he held the Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professorship (2009–2016) and the Allan and Myra Ferguson Professorship (2016–2020) before assuming his current endowed chair.
His research spans circular economy and waste valorization, multiscale modeling and simulation, process intensification and electrification, renewable fuels and chemicals, in silico materials prediction, and kinetic modeling. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in multiscale modeling and in foundational research on biomass conversion, plastics recycling, and upcycling.
Vlachos has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Neal R. Amundson Life Achievement Award (ISCRE/NASCRE, 2025), the Borealis Scientific Innovation Award (Linz, Austria, 2024), the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2024), the ACS CATL Exceptional Achievements in Catalysis Award (2021), the Irving Wender Award for Excellence in Catalysis (2020), the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia Award (2016), and the R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering from AIChE (2011). He also received an NSF CAREER Award and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award early in his career, served as ExxonMobil Visiting Chair Professor at the National University of Singapore (2018–2021), and has been an AAAS Fellow since 2009.
He is the corresponding author of over 700 refereed publications and has delivered more than 350 plenary, keynote, and invited lectures. His citation record is available on his Google Scholar website. Professor Vlachos serves as Editor-in-Chief of Reaction Chemistry & Engineering and has served on the editorial boards of Chemical Engineering Science, ACS Catalysis, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Applied Catalysis A: General, and others.