The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering’s Dr. Surya Mallapragada has been officially recognized as Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering in the University Awards ceremony. She was presented with a framed certificate by Iowa State University President Steven Leath and Senior Vice President and Provost Jonathan Wickert.
The title of distinguished professor honors exemplary performance in research and/or creative activities as reflected by a national or international reputation in the nominee’s discipline. The nominee must also have demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching and advising, extension/professional practice, or institutional service. The awardee retains the title for the remainder of his or her career at Iowa State. CBE professor Brent Shanks received the recognition in 2015. Marston was an educator and engineering department head at Iowa State, and was influential in the development of the College of Engineering and the Iowa State campus.
Mallapragada, who is also the Carol Vohs Johnson Chair (“Carol’s Chair”) in Chemical and Biological Engineering, and is a distinguished professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, joined Iowa State’s CBE faculty in 1996 as an assistant professor after receiving her Ph.D. from Purdue University and performing postdoctoral work at MIT. She was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2001 and to full professor in 2006. She also served as program director of the Chemistry & Biomolecular Materials Program at Ames Laboratory from 2004-2008. She served as chair of the CBE department from 2009-13.
Her research interests include smart polymers for gene delivery; polymers for vaccine delivery; bioinspired nanocomposites; nanoparticles for co-localization of multiple enzymes; and a special focus on neural tissue engineering and control of stem cell differentiation, which has applications in pancreatic cancer and nanomedicines for treating brain injuries.