Edmund G. Seebauer is James W. Westwater Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has served on the faculty since 1988. He served as department head during 2005-11, and as a campus-level Provost Fellow for international academic programs during 2011-14.
Seebauer received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1983, and his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1986 – both degrees in chemical engineering. His research focuses on defect engineering with applications in nanoscale systems and devices. He has received a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry and an Inventor Recognition Award from Semiconductor Research Corporation, and is currently a Fellow of the AIChE, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the American Vacuum Society.
Seebauer has nearly 200 journal and conference publications, and has co-authored a book on charged defects in semiconductors. He is co-author (with R. L. Barry) of the textbook Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists and Engineers (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 2001), and has developed an undergraduate course in engineering ethics. He has received several awards for student teaching and advising, and has served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He has organized conference programming for several professional societies, and is currently a Director of the Materials Science and Engineering Division within AIChE. He has served on multiple external advisory boards for chemical engineering departments. He also has formal training in philosophy though a Study in a Second Discipline Fellowship for faculty at Illinois.