Roland Faller earned this honor after 24 years of membership with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and significant professional accomplishments.

Roland Faller, dean of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering, is not a chemical engineer by trade – all of his degrees are in physics. 

But when he came to the United States from Germany in 2000 to become a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin, his research in simulation of polymer melts fit under a different department: chemical engineering. 

 “That was my first interaction with chemical engineering,” he explained. “It just happened that the work I was doing in Germany, which was in physics, overlapped more with chemical engineering here.”

Faller’s focus remained in the field ever since, teaching mainly thermodynamics for decades and becoming the department chair of the chemical engineering department at the University of California, Davis. He was named dean of the Whitacre College in 2023. 

Yet his subsequent involvement with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and recent election to AIChE Fellow revealed he is not only accepted in the field but considered an expert.

“I didn’t really feel surprise, but validation is probably the closest to how I can describe it,” Faller recounted of the moment he received the email announcement in August. “It’s validation of the work I have been doing over many years and it’s really an interesting group to be a part of.”

To qualify as a Fellow, Faller had to demonstrate long-term excellence in the practice of chemical engineering for more than a couple of decades. He had to be an AIChE member for at least ten years (exclusive of student membership) and be a senior member at the time of election. His election to Fellow recognizes both his demonstrated “service to the profession” and “significant professional accomplishment.”

Faller’s scientific work won a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Principal Investigator Award in 2003. He also has published over 150 scientific papers throughout his career. 

“Dean Faller’s election as an AIChE Fellow underscores his scholarly depth and his remarkable ability to bridge disciplines,” said Provost & Senior Vice President Ron Hendrick. “Though trained in physics, his lasting impact in chemical engineering reflects the kind of cross-disciplinary excellence and innovation that will help propel Texas Tech University’s research forward.”

Faller knew he had been nominated by his mentor Jennifer Curtis, the former College of Engineering dean at UC Davis as well as an AIChE Fellow. He joins several of his colleagues who have earned the honor and have the responsibility to define the future of chemical engineering.  

“What it really is all about to me is mentoring the next generation,” Faller said. “Yes, I’ve achieved quite a bit in my career, but it is not really about me anymore. Honestly, these days, the successes of my former students are even sweeter than my own.”

Just as Faller’s postdoctoral advisor recommended he attend the annual AIChE Annual Meeting early in his career, Faller encourages the same to young engineers through his outreach to the Texas Tech student chapter of AIChE. 

“It really enriches the student experience and is connecting the students to their profession and people from both industry and academia,” he said. “I think one of the biggest things AIChE does is shows you what’s going on at the nationwide scale so you not only see what you are doing is meaningful but how it compares elsewhere.”  

Faller will receive his AIChE Fellow pin at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston this November. From there, he will focus on mentoring, writing letters of recommendation and other ways he can assist the development of Red Raiders and beyond.

“We have to make sure that the next generation has opportunities,” he said. “The success of an institution always hinges on their junior members, and as senior members, it’s our responsibility to make sure we make it possible for them to actually build the road down which the junior members can go.

“I’m really looking forward to our students and our young faculty doing great things.”