In August, Professor Montgomery Shaw was appointed Interim Head of the Department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering (CMBE). The department emerged from the July 2006 merger of the formerly autonomous departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. Dr. Shaw, who has served on the faculty for nearly three decades, is responsible for helping the department transition and evolve into a single, vibrant unit. The CMBE department is home to over 20 faculty members and covers a wide spectrum of disciplines, from polymer science and environmental engineering to biomaterials, nanomaterials and alternative energy. Dr. Shaw oversees two program directors within the department, Mark Aindow, who is Director of the Materials Science & Engineering program, and Richard Parnas, who is Director of the Chemical Engineering program. A national search is underway to identify a permanent Department Head.

Dr. Shaw is regarded internationally as an expert in the areas of polymer blends, rheology and polymer processing, electrorheological fluids, electrical cable insulation and polymer recycling. His research achievements, including his identification of the role of particle shape in the mechanism of electrorheology, have led to advances in design of polymer-based systems as smart materials. He is a Fellow of SPE and previously received the SPE International Research Award (1998). He was selected the A.T. DiBenedetto Distinguished Professor in 2003, an honor that entails a $10,000 annual professional development grant for each of three years, and he was named a Distinguished Professor by the School of Engineering in 1999.

Dr. Shaw is co-author of the monographs Polymer-Polymer Miscibility (Academic, 1979) and Computer Programs for Rheologists (Hanser, 1994) and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation.

Dr. Shaw earned his doctoral degree from Princeton University.