Faculty Profiles

Capsule Bio:

Dr. Drews received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2014, where he received the University Graduate Fellowship, Air Products Graduate Fellowship, and Chemical Engineering Teaching Fellowship.  His dissertation introduced ratcheted contact charge electrophoresis as a novel means to rapidly and efficiently transport conductive particles in microfluidic channels.  He also collaborated with the Whitesides group at Harvard University as part of a DARPA-led effort to extinguish flames via electric fields, a method which utilized so-called fire fighting "wands."  In addition to multiple sessions as an exceptional teaching assistant, he worked with Drs. Darrell and Stephanie Velegol as a Teaching Fellow at Penn State to modify and apply the flipped classroom instructional format to a core chemical engineering course.  The flipped classroom is an active classroom style which promotes self-directed learning and increases the quantity and usefulness of teacher-student interactions by forgoing the standard "sage-on-the-stage" lecture format in favor of small, student-led groups.  As a lecturer at UC San Diego, Dr. Drews will be particularly involved with the long-term, continued development and improvement of core undergraduate chemical engineering laboratory courses.