Rate My Professor Mark Swihart

Mark Swihart is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (2018-2025) in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo. He also serves as an Empire Innovation Professor in the Research and Education in Energy, Environment, and Water (RENEW) Institute. Swihart received his BS in Chemical Engineering summa cum laude from Rice University in 1992 and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1997 as a National Science Foundation graduate fellow. After completing his doctorate, he performed postdoctoral research in the Particle Technology Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Minnesota before joining the University at Buffalo faculty in 1998, progressing through the ranks to full professor and distinguished status.

Swihart's research centers on the synthesis, processing, and applications of nanoparticles and nanomaterials, as well as detailed chemical kinetic modeling in reacting flows. His laboratory has developed novel flame aerosol reactors for scalable production of high-entropy nanoceramics and multi-component metal nanoparticles, advanced solution-phase syntheses of anisotropic nanostructures, and applications including bioimaging with silicon nanocrystals, antimicrobial materials, and energy storage. He has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, three book chapters, three edited proceedings volumes, the eighth edition of Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics (Smith, van Ness, Abbott, and Swihart, 2017), and is co-inventor on five issued U.S. patents. His publications have received more than 29,000 citations. Swihart has earned the Kenneth Whitby Award from the American Association for Aerosol Research, the J.B. Wagner Award from the Electrochemical Society, the Schoellkopf Medal (2013), fellowships from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Meyerson Award for undergraduate mentoring (2015), and the Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award (2026). He has been selected as “Professor of the Year” by University at Buffalo chemical engineering undergraduates five times, serves as editor of Aerosol Science and Technology, and is on the Board of Consulting Editors for AIChE Journal.