Richard Cairncross
Associate Professor
Degrees
PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1994
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1989
Honors and Awards
- L.E. Scriven Young Investigator Award at the 13th International Coating Science and Technology Symposium, 2006
- Carl Dahlquist Award for Best Paper at the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council Tech XXV Meeting, 2002
- 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, 1996, 1998, & 1999
- Sandia National Laboratories Award for Excellence, 1998
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 1996
- U.S. Department of Energy Defense Programs Young Scientist and Engineer Award, 1996
- U.S. Department of Energy Basic Engineering Sciences Award for Sustained Outstanding Research in Metallurgy and Ceramics, 1995
- Marcel Dekker, Inc. Best Paper Award (Drying Technology: An International Journal), 1994
- Dissertation Fellowship (University of Minnesota), Fall 1993 to Spring 1994
- OSSP summer research program at Sandia National Laboratories, Summer 1993
- American Chemical Society Chemistry Achievement Award, 1989
- Shelby A. Miller Prize in Design (Best Design Project), AIChE, Rochester Section, 1989
Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, initiated 1988
Research Interests
- Moisture transport and hydrolytic degradation of bio-based and biodegradable polymers.
- Biofuels and Bioenergy, Integrated Biorefining of Biomass into a variety of products.
- Transport Phenomena (fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, mass transfer, and heat transfer) in materials processing of polymers, ceramics, and composites.
- Fundamentals of coating and drying processes. The interactions between processing conditions, microstructure development and coating properties.
- Finite element methods for multi-phase, multiphysics, and multi-scale free-surface problems in complex geometries and three dimensions.
- Thermal Spray productions of coatings from polymer powders and polymer/ceramic composite powders.
- Moisture transport in paper and swelling and collapse of paper fibers during moisturization and drying.
Recent Publications
Stacy, C.J.; Melick, C.A.; Mohammed, M.; Cairncross, R.A. Esterification of Free-Fatty-Acids to Biodiesel in a Bubble Column Reactor. 2012, in preparation.
Mohammed, M.; Cairncross, R.A.; Two Phase Model of a Bubble Column Reactor for the Esterification of Free Fatty Acids into Biodiesel. 2012, in preparation.
Dever, D.; Cairncross, R.A.; Elabd, Y.A. Nanofiber Cathode Catalyst Layer Model for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. Submitted to Journal of Power Sources 2012.
Koo,D.; Du, A.; Palmese, G.R.; Cairncross, R.A. Synthesis and Water Sorption of Standard and End-capped Polylactides: the Effect of Morphology. Polym. Chem. 2012, 3(3), 718-726.
Koo, D.; Du, A.; Palmese, G.R.; Cairncross, R.A. Moisture Management in Polylactides: The Effect of Heat Treatment. Polymer 2012, 53(5), 1115-1123.
Du, A.; Koo, D.; Theryo, F.; Hillmyer, M.A.; Cairncross, R.A. Water Transport and Clustering Behavior in Homopolymer and Graft Copolymer Polylactide. J. Membr. Sci. 2012, 396, 50-56.
Wong, W.K; Cheng, S.; Li, C.Y.; Ahmad, I.; Cairncross, R.A.; Hsuan, Y.G. Depletion Mechanism of Antioxidants in MDPE-Clay Nanocomposites under Thermal Aging. Polym. Degrad. Stab. 2012, 97(2), 192-199.
Davis, E.M.; Theryo, G>; Hillmyer, M.A.; Cairncross, R.A.; Elabd, Y.A. Liquid Water Transport in Polylactide Homo and Graft Copolymers. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2011, 3(10), 3997-4006.
Du, A.; Koo, D.; Ziegler, M; Cairncross, R.A. The Effect of Heat Treatment on Water Sorption in Polylactide and Polylactide Composite via the Change in Their Glass Transition State and Isothermal Crystallization Kinetics. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2011, 49(12), 873-881.
Singh, V.M.; Koo, D.; Palmese, G.R.; Cairncross, R.A. Synthesis of Polylactide with Varying Molecular Weight and Aliphatic Content: Effect on Moisture Sorption. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2011, 120(5), 2543-2549.