Assistant Professor Ria Corder has been selected for the 2026 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 35 Under 35 Awards in the chemical & materials category.
The award, which is offered in a three-year cycle, recognizes outstanding AIChE members under age 35 who have made significant contributions in the field of chemical engineering and AIChE. The chemical and materials category places an emphasis on design, generation, and characterization of chemical products and functional materials systems.
“I am incredibly honored to receive this recognition from AIChE as one of their 35 Under 35 for 2026,” Corder said. “I have been a member of AIChE since I was an undergraduate student, and the organization has helped me throughout my career by providing opportunities and resources for networking and career advancement. I am grateful for the spotlight this award brings to the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UT and the work my group is doing.”
Corder’s group studies soft composite materials that contain both rigid particles and flexible polymer chains. Specifically, the group studies their rheology—how they flow and deform—to understand how changes in material composition affect their ability to be processed. By combining experimental rheology with principles of polymer science and small-angle scattering measurements of material microstructures, Corder’s group is developing structure-process-property relationships to inform the design of novel soft composite material systems. The group’s work was recently featured in ACS Applied Polymer Materials.
Corder, who joined the Tickle College of Engineering faculty in 2024, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Alabama and her PhD in chemical engineering at North Carolina State University. From 2021-2023, Corder was a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue, where she received the outstanding postdoc and outstanding graduate mentor awards.
In November 2025, Corder was elected to the AIChE Area 1J Fluids Programming Committee (FPC) for a five-year term. The FPC helps to shape the fluid mechanics technical programming at each AIChE annual meeting. The position is Corder’s first leadership role within AIChE.
Corder will be recognized at the Gathering of Leadership reception on November 7 during the 2026 AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])