125th Anniversary Symposium Series
The 2nd Symposium celebrates Deans of Engineering
with ties to ChBE@GT (alumni and/or former faculty)
Clifford L. Henderson
Dean, Styslinger College of Engineering
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Alabama
Jim Pfaendtner
Louis Martin-Vega Dean, College of Engineering
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
North Carolina State University
Mary Rezac
Dean, School of Engineering
Professor, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
University of Kansas
Henderson Bio:
Dr. Clifford L. Henderson is currently the Dean of the Styslinger College of Engineering at The University of Alabama and a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Prior to joining the University of Alabama in 2022, he previously served for six years as Department Chair for the Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering at the University of South Florida and as a Professor for 18 years in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dean Henderson received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his M.S. and Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.
He has served in a variety of national leadership roles across various science and engineering organizations, including two years of service as a Program Director and Expert for the National Science Foundation in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) and the Functional Materials Program.
Dean Henderson’s research has focused on problems at the intersection of chemical engineering, organic and polymeric materials science, and micro- and nanotechnology in a variety of application areas including electronics, energy, and biotechnology. He has published more than 200 papers on the various topics related to his research, given more than 300 seminars and talks world-wide related to his research, and he has supervised and graduated 35 Ph.D. students, 5 M.S. students, and more than 75 undergraduate research students over the course of his career thus far.
Dean Henderson has received numerous awards and recognition for his research and service work including an NSF CAREER Award, the inaugural Intel/STC Outstanding Lithography Researcher Award, the AIChE Herb Epstein Award, and the AIChE Gary Leach Award. Dean Henderson has been elected as a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) in 2010, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2017, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2018.
Pfaendtner Bio:
Jim Pfaendtner is the Louis Martin-Vega Dean of Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. With more than 12,500 students, 750 faculty and staff members and more than $260M in annual research expenditures, NC State’s College of Engineering is internationally recognized for the excellence of its research, education and outreach programs. As dean, Pfaendtner is committed to expanding access to engineering, fostering excellence and shaping an environment where all students can thrive. Jim is deeply committed to improving mental health in higher education, he is an advocate for destigmatizing mental illness and expanding access to mental health resources for students, staff and faculty.
He joined NC State from the University of Washington (UW), where he served as the Connie and Steve Rogel Endowed Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and concurrently as the university’s first Associate Vice Provost for Research Computing.
Jim maintains an active research group, using computer simulations to study macromolecular behavior, in particular protein adsorption at interfaces. He has published over 150 research articles and was recently elected as a Fellow of the AAAS.
Pfaendtner holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University.
Rezac Bio:
Mary Rezac serves as Dean of Engineering at the University of Kansas. She joined KU in March 2024 after seven years as dean of Washington State University’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture.
At KU, Rezac is responsible for managing the academic programs that support more than 3,500 students, enabling research activities, and advancing the school’s strategic initiatives in energy, security, sustainability, and biomedical engineering.
Rezac earned a doctorate and master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Kansas State. Early in her career, she held a research position at Phillip’s Petroleum Company.
She began her academic career at Georgia Tech where she served as an assistant and associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Throughout her career, she has focused on ensuring that every student, staff, and faculty member have access to effective mentoring to ensure their individual and collective success.
