Kenneth R. Cox

Research Interests:

• Phase Equilibria for Advanced Separations Design
• Sustainability Analysis of Energy Resources
• Molecular Selection and Informatics

Education:

• B.S.ChE (1974) The Ohio State University
• M.S. (1977) University of Illinois
• Ph.D. (1979) University of Illinois

Professional Background

Prior to joining the faculty at Rice University, Dr. Cox taught for 4 years at The Ohio State University and worked for 17 years as a Research Engineer with Shell Development Company in Houston. As an Associate Professor at Ohio State, he taught courses in process design, colloidal behavior, transport phenomena, research planning, and technical communications. His research was in the simulation of colloidal dynamics and stability, with specific applications to biological systems.

At Shell Development Company, Dr. Cox specialized in the areas of colloidal dynamics and stability, phase equilibria of complex systems, applications of molecular simulations, and physical properties for process design. During his time with Shell, he spent 1-1/2 years as an exchange scientist with Shell Research in Amsterdam.

Dr. Cox served for many years as a member of the Editorial Board for Fluid Phase Equilibria, an international journal. He has also served as chairman of the Chemical Engineering Science and Fundamentals programming committee of AIChE. He currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the South Texas Section of AIChE and as a Laison Director of CoMSEF. Dr. Cox is a committee member for the Safety and Chemical Engineering Education program of CCPS

Dr. Cox’s current memberships include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society for Biological Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the American Chemical Society. Dr. Cox is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas.

Courses Taught

•  ChBE 403 -- Design Fundamentals
•  ChBE 404 -- Product and Process Design
•  ChBE 343 -- Chemical Engineering Laboratory I
•  ChBE 443 -- Chemical Engineering Laboratory II

Presentations

1. "Product Design and Process Desing -- Together at Last!", with coauthor Kevin G. Joback, 2005 AIChE Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio (November 2, 2005)
2. “Chemical Engineering as an “Eggs Act” Science”, 2005 AIChE Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio (November 1, 2000)
3. “Out of Sight Insights: Solving Process Mysteries using a Simulation Lens”, Invited Talk for the OLI 23rd User Conference, Parsippany, New Jersey (October 6, 2005)
4. “Thermo Savvy for the Distillation Expert”, Invited Talk for the Spring Distillation Symposium – South Texas Section of AIChE, Houston, Texas (April 14, 2005)
5. “Thermo Savvy for the Distillation Expert”, Invited Talk for the Topical Conference on Distillation, 2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia (April 11, 2005)
6. "Chemical Engineering Alchemy: The Guts to Gold Project." American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas. (November 11, 2004)
7. “Experimental measurements and modeling of ultra-high pressure water content of binary hydrocarbon + water mixtures.” American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas. (November 8, 2004) Wtith Walter G. Chapman, Aleksandra Dominik, Matthew Yarrison.
8. "Coordinating Laboratory Courses Across Engineering and Science Curricula." American Society for Engineering Education Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah. (June, 2004) With A. Saterbak, B. Beason, J. Bordeaux, D. Caprette.
9. “Limitations and Limiting Laws: Advanced EOS Models for Complex Solutions.” Tenth International Conference on Properties and Phase Equilibria for Product and Process Design, Snowbird, Utah. (May 19, 2004).
10. "Distillation Through Young Eyes: Lessons Learned from Students and Evolution of Chemical Engineering Education." Invited Talk for the Second Annual Spring Distillation Symposium, South Texas Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Houston, Texas . (April 29, 2004)
11. "Essential Equation of State Characteristics for Molecular Insights in Chemical Engineering Design." AIChE Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (April 27, 2004)
12. “Smart Molecular Thermodynamics with Applications to Associating, Micellar, and Polymer Systems”, Invited Lecture. Gulf Coast Scientists, Dow Chemical, Freeport, Texas. (January 8, 2004). With Walter G. Chapman.
13. "A perspective on Physical Property Methods for Process Simulation." Invited Talk for the Spring Distillation Symposium/South Texas Section AIChE, Houston, Texas. (April 3, 2003)
14. “Using the SAFT EOS to Improve Parameter Estimation”, AIChE Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana (March 31, 2003)
15. "Tiers and Tools: Perspective of a Practitioner Turned Academic--Leveraging Modern Technologies in Teaching Engineering Design." AIChE 2002 Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana. (November 14, 2002)
16. "Limiting Lemmas and Lemons: The Common Pitfalls of Modeling Excess Gibbs Energy Data." AIChE Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (March 13, 2002) With Raymond French and George Koplos.
17. "Communications Training in Chemical Engineering Design: Responding to an Evolving Profession." Invited Paper for WAC 2002: The Sixth National Writing across the Curriculum Conference, Rice University. (March 9, 2002)

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