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López earns rank of distinguished professor

July 16, 2024 - by Kim Delker

photo: Gabriel López
Gabriel P. López

Gabriel P. López, a professor in the UNM Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been promoted to the rank of distinguished professor, beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.

UNM defines distinguished professors as those who “have demonstrated outstanding achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned as scholars.” It is the highest faculty title the university bestows, and only a handful of professors are honored with the rank each year.

Earlier this year, López was selected to serve as interim chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

A native of New Mexico, López joined UNM in 1993 as a faculty member in both chemical engineering and chemistry. In 2005, he became the founding director of UNM’s Center for Biomedical Engineering as well as the biomedical engineering graduate program. In 2010, he joined Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering as a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering while remaining an adjunct professor at UNM. He served five years on the STC.UNM Board of Directors (now UNM Rainforest Innovations) and was inducted as an STC.UNM (UNM Rainforest Innovations) Innovation Fellow in 2016. He returned full time to UNM and was selected as UNM’s vice president for research in 2015, a role he served in until 2020.

López earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1985 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington in 1991. His research interests include biointerfacial phenomena, biomaterials, self-assembly, and bioanalytical microsystems to address problems in medicine, biotechnology and environmental quality.

Other School of Engineering professors (current and former) who hold the distinguished rank are Plamen Atanassov (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Jeffrey Brinker (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Steven Brueck (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Vince Calhoun (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Christos Christodoulou (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Abhaya Datye (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Mohamed El-Genk (Nuclear Engineering), Fernando Garzon (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Kerry Howe (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Deepak Kapur (Computer Science), Anil Prinja (Nuclear Engineering), Mahmoud Taha (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering), Edl Schamiloglu (Electrical and Computer Engineering), John Stormont (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering) and David Whitten (Chemical and Biological Engineering).