David Kofke received his B.S. in chemical engineering in 1983 from Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Pennsylvania, under the supervision of Eduardo Glandt. Since 1989, he has been on the chemical engineering faculty of the University at Buffalo (SUNY), serving as department chair for the years 2006-2012; he is now a SUNY Distinguished Professor and holds the Walter E. Schmid Chair. He also served as the department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies for 20 of his 36 years at UB. Prof. Kofke’s research in methods and applications of molecular modeling has resulted in over 170 refereed publications to date.
His research aims to develop and improve methods to compute material properties accurately and reliably from molecular models. His earlier work on free-energy methods led to his present focus on the multifaceted problems and opportunities relating to the virial equation of state. He is also active in development of object-oriented molecular simulation software for research and education.
Among other awards, Prof. Kofke is the recipient of the triennial John M. Prausnitz Award for applied chemical thermodynamics in 2004, the 2007 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal, and the 2012 Himmelblau Award from the CAST division of AIChE. Prof. Kofke was a member from 1999 to 2022 of the Board of Trustees of CACHE, where he served as President in 2010-2012. In 2014 he was elected Fellow of the AIChE and the AAAS. Since 2016, he has been an Associate Editor of Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data.