Anne Robinson receives Trustee Professorship

Congratulations to Chemical Engineering Department Head Anne Skaja Robinson on being awarded the Trustee Professorship in Chemical Engineering. This professorship is designated by the University’s Board of Trustees, and is designed to honor leadership and academic excellence in the College of Engineering. 

Before coming to Carnegie Mellon to head up the Department of Chemical Engineering in late 2018, Robinson served as Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University, where she was also the Catherine and Henry Boh Professor. Prior to that, she held the position of Full Professor and Associate Chair at the University of Delaware. Now, even in her short time as Department Head of Chemical Engineering here at CMU, her creative and forward-thinking leadership has already brought positive change to the department and beyond.

“Dr. Robinson is not only a proven leader, but also a true talent in the field of Chemical Engineering,” says Jonathan Cagan, interim dean of the College of Engineering. “Her track record of bold and creative leadership makes her the perfect person to lead Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and the ideal candidate for this Trustee Professorship.” 

It is not only Robinson’s long record of exceptional leadership for which she has been honored with this Trustee Professorship, but her transformative research career as well. Robinson’s lab has two main goals: to understand the disease mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and to improve the production of biopharmaceuticals on an industrial scale.

Dr. Robinson is not only a proven leader, but also a true talent in the field of Chemical Engineering.

Jonathan Cagan, Interim Dean, College of Engineering

Half of today’s top selling biopharmaceutical drugs are antibody drugs, used to stimulate a patient’s immune system to attack invasive cells. But industry faces challenges in producing these biopharmaceuticals. Many finished batches of biopharmaceuticals are discarded due to complications that ruin the batch somewhere in the process but can’t be detected until the final failed drug is produced. Robinson’s lab is developing methods of making the industrial manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals more robust, in order to prevent this waste from occurring.

In addition to biopharmaceuticals, Robinson’s lab studies neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Robinson’s lab is looking at tau proteins, one of the two key hallmarks of failure in Alzheimer’s disease—in particular, how and when these proteins go awry, to try to understand the turning point. By identifying what causes the brain’s tau proteins to malfunction, Robinson hopes to develop preventative measures and future treatments for those afflicted with neurodegenerative diseases. 

 

“One of the strengths of Carnegie Mellon is its focus on innovation, and the research outcomes from interdisciplinary collaborations,” says Robinson. “There are so many strengths around the university that the department as a whole is able to leverage, and the collegiality among all of our faculty has me excited for what we can accomplish together in the future.”

In addition to this Trustee Professorship in Chemical Engineering, Robinson has received numerous national accolades, including the NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE), the ACS BIOT Perlman Award, the AIChE SBE Biotechnology Progress Award for Excellence in Biological Engineering Publication, and election as an AIChE Fellow. 

“It’s an honor to receive the Trustee Professorship in Chemical Engineering,” says Robinson. “I’m so grateful to the board for their support—both of my leadership and of the department as a whole.”

Robinson officially received the Professorship at an event held on Friday, November 15^th, from 4:30 – 6:30 pm in the Bosh Spark Conference Room on the 5^th floor of Scott Hall.