Roseanne M. Ford

Roseanne M. Ford is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia, where she also served as Department Chair and Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies. Her research focuses on microbial transport in porous media, particularly chemotactic bacteria's role in bioremediation. She holds degrees from the University of Delaware (B.S., 1984) and University of Pennsylvania (M.S. 1985, Ph.D. 1989).

Education:

• B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, 1984
• M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1985
• Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1989

Research Interests: Computational systems biology, environmental engineering, water resources, and microbial transport dynamics. Her work combines experimental, computational, and multi-scale modeling approaches to enhance bioremediation efficiency and understand bacterial behavior in complex environments.

Awards:

• AIChE Fellow (2024)
• Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professorship (highest UVa teaching award)
• AIChE WIC Excellence in Mentoring Award (2016)
• William R. Kenan Jr. Visiting Professorship (2017-2018)

Grants & Projects: Leads Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative studies on microbial motility in oil degradation. Recent work integrates sonification and machine learning to analyze bacterial swimming dynamics and chemotaxis patterns. Current projects explore biofilm inhibition via nanocarriers and marine bacteria's response to hydrocarbons.

Labs/Teams: Directs the Ford Group, collaborating with institutions like NIST and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Active in interdisciplinary initiatives blending engineering, microbiology, and data science.