Sindee Simon Elected as an AAAS Fellow

Sindee Simon, Distinguished Professor and Department Head, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  She is being honored “for transformational contributions to materials physics and chemistry, particularly for novel experiments and modeling of non-equilibrium behavior of glasses and the impact of nanoconfinement on phase transitions and polymerization kinetics.”

Prof. Simon joined the CBE faculty as Department Head in 2021 and was named a Distinguished Professor in fall of 2022.   Simon is a world leader in the experimental sciences of calorimetry, dilatometry, and polymerization kinetics.  Her innovative experiments, unique instrumentation, combined with strong mathematical modeling, have led to an internationally recognized program that has made, and continues to make, major contributions in three broad areas of materials physics and chemistry: structural recovery and aging of glasses; phase transitions and reaction kinetics at the nanoscale, and physics and chemistry of thermosetting polymers and composites.

Sindee received her B.S. in chemical engineering from Yale University in 1983, followed by three years at Beech Aircraft working on the all-composite Starship. She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1992. She started her academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and then moved to Texas Tech in 1999 as as associate professor. At Texas Tech, she was named the P. W. Horn Distinguished Professor in 2010 and served as the Whitacre Department Chair of Chemical Engineering for seven years from 2012-2019.

She has published over 125 refereed journal publications and has over 6700 citations. Her numerous honors include the Society of Plastics Engineers International Award, the Society of Plastics Engineers Research Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the North American Thermal Analysis Society. She has also been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Society of Plastics Engineers, the North American Thermal Analysis Society and the AIChE.

Congratulations Professor Simon for this prestigious honor!