Johannes Schwank

Johannes Schwank holds a Ph. D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Innsbruck University in Austria. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1980 where he rose through the ranks and became Full Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1990. He served as Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department from 1990 – 1995, as Interim Director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute 2011/2012, and as Director of EMAL (Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory), a campus-wide user facility for materials characterization 2013-2015.  He is the holder of the James and Judith Street Chair in Chemical Engineering and the Director of REFRESCH, an interdisciplinary project that deals with food, energy, and water security in resource–constrained environments.

He is a Fellow of AICHE and serves on multiple editorial boards and industrial and academic advisory boards. He is the author of more than 215 refereed publications, and holds 15 patents. His research group is working on a wide range of topics, including novel catalyst synthesis and characterization methods; nanostructured materials for catalysis and sensing applications; synthetic fuels; biomass conversion; hydrogen production; fuel cells; automotive emission control catalysts; photocatalysis.