Harmon, Rebecca

Biography

Office: CBEC 352

Rebecca Harmon is an Assistant Professional Practice Professor in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.S. in chemical engineering at Iowa State University in 2017 (Go Cyclones!), her M.S. from Northwestern University, and a joint Ph.D. from Northwestern University and the University of Amsterdam in 2022 funded by a National Science Foundation PIRE (Partnerships for International Research and Education) grant. She served as chair of the communications committee in AIChE's Education Division.

As a graduate student, she investigated research questions at the intersection of cultural heritage science and chemical engineering. Her thesis is titled Computational modeling of polymerization and degradation of complex polymer systems and covers topics including the autoxidation of drying oils, polyolefin pyrolysis modeling, and new simulation methods for polymer reaction engineering. During her Ph.D., she also created several activities relating her research to STEM outreach efforts in the local community.

At Ohio State, Dr. Harmon is interested in implementing evidence-based effective teaching methods and supporting students' sense of belonging in the classroom and chemical engineering field. She also started a Teaching ChemE Journal Club for anyone interested in teaching and engineering education (email her if you would like to learn more).

Note: Dr. Harmon does not have a research group at Ohio State and is not seeking graduate students or postdoctoral research fellows.


Education

Joint Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University & the University of Amsterdam, 2022

          Thesis: Computational modeling of polymerization and degradation of complex polymer systems

          Supervisors: Linda Broadbelt (NU) and Piet Iedema (UvA)

M.S. Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 2019

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 2017


Courses

  • CBE 2345 Computational Methods for Chemical Engineering (Spring 2024)
  • CBE 3610 Kinetics and Reactor Design (Autumn 2023)
  • CBE 3730/1 Unit Operations (Autumn 2023)
  • CBE 2420 Transport Phenomena I (Spring 2023)

Society Membership

  • American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE); Education Division
  • American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE); Chemical Engineering Division
  • Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society
  • Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
  • Order of the Engineer