Kofke named AAAS fellow

David Kofke, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of Science, one of the premier, peer-reviewed, general science journals in the world.

He is among 401 AAAS members who were elected fellows for 2015, being recognized by their peers for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Kofke was recognized for his contributions in the fields of thermodynamics of fluids and statistical mechanics of molecular systems.

The new AAAS fellows will receive an official certificate and a gold-and-blue — representing science and engineering, respectively — rosette pin during the AAAS Fellows Forum at the 2015 AAAS annual meeting, being held in February in San Jose, California.

“David Kofke is a true scholar,” says Stelios Andreadis, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “His selection as an AAAS fellow is another testament of his academic achievements and the respect that he enjoys among our peers.”

Kofke joined the UB faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in modeling biomolecular interactions.

He has since amassed nearly 130 publications in scientific journals in the areas of statistical physics and molecular modeling, and has co-authored chapters in “Handbook of Materials Modeling” and “Molecular Dynamics: From Classical to Quantum Methods.”

Kofke has received numerous honors and awards for research and teaching. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, one of the highest honors a chemical engineer can achieve, and is one of only five recipients of the John M. Prausnitz Award for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Chemical Thermodynamics.

Among his other awards are the Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal, the SUNY Chancellor’s awards for Excellence in Teaching and in Research and Creative Activity, and the David Himmelblau Award for Innovations in Computer-Based Chemical Engineering.

Although Kofke’s research may seem complex to most outside his field, his work boils down to predicting how materials will behave based on how molecules interact. His work has far-reaching impact in a range of fields, including pharmaceutical manufacturing, nanotechnology and biochemistry.

He received a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in the same field from Carnegie Mellon University.