Cam Abrams Selected as a Department Head at Drexel

Alum Dr. Cameron Abrams (BS, ’95) has been selected to serve as the 7th Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Drexel University.

Cam completed his Ph.D. degree in the (then) Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley (2000). After two years of postdoctoral work at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, he joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Drexel as an Assistant Professor in 2002

Dr. Abrams is a professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and a professor (by courtesy) at the Drexel College of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His research interests include molecular simulations in biophysics and materials, HIV-1 envelope structure and function, and protein-ligand binding thermodynamics and kinetics.

His professional awards include the Drexel College of Engineering Excellence in Research Award (2014) and an NSF CAREER Award (2006). Most recently he received the 2015 CoMSEF Impact Award, which cites his work “For the development and application of enhanced sampling and free-energy methods for elucidating thermodynamics and kinetics of protein conformational changes and ligand interactions.” CoMSEF is the Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum within the AIChE. The Award is given annually to a CoMSEF member who is within 15 years of completion of their highest degree.

As department head, he’ll guide a department with 16 tenure-track faculty members, 450 undergraduate students and 50 graduate students. In January 2017, Cam and the outgoing head, Professor Giuseppe Palmese (PI), were awarded a $2.4 million cooperative agreement from ARL entitled “Bio-based Thermosets with Superior Performance Characteristics.”

Congratulations Dr. Abrams!