The department of Chemical Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of David Simakov to our faculty. In his new role as assistant professor, he will teach reaction engineering and transport phenomena and continue his research in sustainable reaction engineering. David is a respected researcher, with publications in several leading journals, including Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Catalysis Science & Technology and Applied Catalysis. In addition to his role in Chemical Engineering, David will be actively engaged with the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE) and the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
At the University of Waterloo, his research focusses on heterogeneous catalysis and reactor design, with the goal of developing highly efficient processes that use renewable energy to convert greenhouse gases into sustainable synthetic fuels. Converting carbon dioxide that would otherwise pollute the environment into a sustainable and affordable fuel would minimize greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
David began his formal education in Russia, at the Far Eastern State University of Humanities, before moving to Israel where he earned his MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. There, he worked on the design of catalytic membrane reformers for highly efficient hydrogen generation from natural gas. Upon graduation, he worked on fuel cell design in an Israeli start-up company before continuing his post-doctoral studies in some of the world’s top-ranked universities.
David worked on systems biology in a joint Technion-Princeton University project, studied nonlinear phenomena in oscillatory catalytic systems at Harvard University, and conducted research on solar thermochemical conversion of natural gas at MIT.
We are pleased to have David join the department of Chemical Engineering and lend his considerable skills and experience to our education and research programs.