Faculty News

Welcome to new faculty Jeff Giacomin, PEng

The Department of Chemical Engineering welcomed Professor Jeffrey Giacomin, Sc’81, MASc’83, in August 2013. After earning both his BSc and MASc at Queen’s, and after working as a scientist at the Research Division at DuPont in Kingston, Dr. Giacomin pursued his PhD in Chemical Engineering at McGill University. Since then, he has gained a diversity of both academic and industrial experience, and we are very pleased to welcome him back to Queen’s.

There were many reasons for Dr. Giacomin’s return to Queen’s. “Our Polymers Research Group in Chemical Engineering is the perfect place to continue my research career,” he says. “I find myself surrounded by emerging leaders in polymers, and specifically, in my speciality, polymer rheology.”

Over the years, Dr. Giacomin and his students have published more than 80 journal articles on topics such as thermoforming, blow molding, plastic

pipe extrusion, wire coating, sheet coating, fiber filled materials, sliding plate rheometry, and the nonlinear viscoelasticity of molten plastics and other complex fluids. This research has attracted industrial sponsorship from 3M, Clearlam, Curwood (Bemis), Dow Chemical, DuPont, IBM, Hutchinson, Kimberly-Clark, Nordson/Extrusion Dies, Phillips 66, Placon, Plastics Ingenuity, Shell Development, Subzero, and TriEnda. Professor Giacomin “ ” I find myself surrounded by emerging leaders in polymers, and specifically, in my speciality, polymer rheology. specializes in industrial manufacturing problems that persist because of a specific knowledge gap, some missing piece of engineering science. The Queen’s Polymers Research Group creates knowledge about plastics manufacturing.

Dr. Giacomin is currently the immediate Past-President of The Society of Rheology and serves as Associate Editor for Business, Journal of Rheology. He also works as a consultant to the polymer industry, and this work often inspires and enriches his university research program.

Due to his group’s ground-breaking and innovative research, Dr. Giacomin has spent a significant amount of time travelling all over the world as a visiting professor. While he is at Queen’s, he is especially interested in spreading the word about Queen’s to international audiences and in attracting foreign sabbaticants to Queen’s. His first stop is Thailand, at the end of November.

It is with great excitement that we welcome Dr.Giacomin back to Queen’s University!