Berkeley’s Jeffrey Reimer will receive AIChE’s Warren K. Lewis Award for ChE education

At UC Berkeley, Reimer's signature course is Chemical Engineering Analysis (ChE 140), which he has taught to more than 2,000 undergraduates. The text for this course, Chemical Engineering Design and Analysis, was co-authored by Reimer and T. Michael Duncan, and teaches students the importance of design concepts early in their academic studies. The book has been adopted by universities in South America, North America, and the UK.

Reimer has also introduced courses on carbon capture and sequestration to the Berkeley curriculum. His associated textbook, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, has become the basis for a public lecture that Reimer uses to introduce non-scientists to issues related to climate change.

"The world's failure to achieve environmental and climate justice is a significant ethical flaw," says Reimer, "and it has profound implications for legal and governance matters affecting all of humanity." He adds that "not providing adequate support to disadvantaged communities and, in some cases, even exacerbating their plight goes against the moral principles upheld by world religions and moral philosophies."

Reimer has extended these teachings to a freshman seminar, in which he engages students from all majors in topics such as magnetic resonance imaging, energy production and distribution, and geochemical and anthropogenic carbon cycles.

As chair of Berkeley's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from 2006 to 2011, and again from 2013 to 2022, Reimer instituted multiple curricular revisions. He launched two professional masters programs (Product Development and Bioprocess Engineering) and hired a dozen faculty members, increasing gender diversity in the department. He also oversaw a reformation of the unit operations lab; rebuilt the bimolecular engineering concentration to include a new, state-of-the-art teaching lab; and tripled annual gifts from alumni.

Reimer is a fellow of multiple organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the International Society for Magnetic Resonance. He also received a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

His past teaching honors include UC Berkeley's Donald Sterling Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Physical Sciences, the AIChE Northern California Section's Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching, and the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award. Also, in 2023, he was bestowed the UC Berkeley Citation – the highest service award presented by the University.

Reimer earned his BS from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his PhD from Cal Tech.

Source article reprinted from AIChE.org: Berkeley's Jeffrey Reimer Will Receive AIChE's Warren K. Lewis Award for ChE Education