Matt Helgeson is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, where he is also a faculty member and Interdisciplinary Research Group co-leader of the Materials Research Laboratory (an NSF MRSEC). He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware in 2009. He performed postdoctoral research in the MIT-Novartis Center for Continuous Manufacturing before joining the faculty at UCSB. Prof. Helgeson’s research focuses on design, formulation and processing of complex fluids with well-specified nanostructure, especially those involving colloids in structured liquids. His research group combines expertise in experimental and theoretical tools for multi-scale characterization of complex fluid structure and rheology, including methods for in situ monitoring of fluid structure and dynamics during processing. Current targets of interest include functional multi-phase particulates and gels for consumer products, biotechnology and advanced separations.
Prof. Helgeson’s research has been recognized with a number of awards, including Early Career Awards from both the National Science Foundation (2013) and Department of Energy (2015), a Hellman Foundation Faculty Fellowship (2016), and both the Victor K. LaMer Award (2011) and Unilever Award (2016) from the American Chemical Society. He has held positions on executive and ad hoc committees for the American Chemical Society Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry, AIChE Area 01J, Society of Rheology and Neutron Scattering Society of America.