• Office Address: 419 Dougherty Engineering Building
• Phone: 865-974-2421
• E-mail: petrovan@utk.edu

Education

• PhD, Technical University Iasi, Romania, 1974: Pulping of Spruce Wood With the Addition of Reducing Agents and the Paper Properties of the Resulted Pulps.

Simioan Petrovan earned his MS degree in 1963 and PhD degree in 1974 in Pulp and Paper Technology from Technical University Iasi, Romania. He held the positions of Assistant to Professor at Pulp and Paper Department and Macromolecules Department until 1997, where he taught various courses in Pulp and Paper Technology, Polymer Processing, Chemical Engineering Fundamentals, Chemical Reactors, and Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations.

In 1997 he joined the Chemical Engineering Department at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge as a Research Associate Professor. From 1999, Petrovan was a Research Associate Professor at Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

He has authored or co-authored 90 technical papers, over 110 presentations at national and international conferences, 1 book, and chapters in 3 books. Among the most recent research fields of interest are rheological characterization of cellulose solutions in environmentally friendly solvents such as N-methyl-morpholine oxide monohydrate and ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, carbon fiber precursors from cellulose/ionic liquids solutions, and lignin carbon fiber precursors.

Awards and Recognitions

• 2005  Engineering Excellence Award in Teaching

Professional Service

• American Chemical Society Member, 2004

• The Society of Rheology Member, 2001 

• Natural and synthetic polymers processing and characterization
• Biomass green technologies
• Shear and elongational rheology of polymer melts and solutions

Publications

• R.J. Sammons, J.R. Collier, T.G. Rials, S. Petrovan, "Rheology of 1-Butyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride Cellulose Solutions. III. Elongational Rheology," Journal of Applied Polymer Science, In Press.
• J.R. Collier, J.L. Watson, B.J. Collier, S. Petrovan, "Rheology of 1-Butyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride Cellulose Solutions. II. Solution Character and Preparation," Journal of Applied Polymer Science, In Press.
• R.J. Sammons, J.R. Collier, T. G. Rials, S. Petrovan, "Rheology of 1-Butyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride Cellulose Solutions. I. Shear Rheology," Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2008, 110, 1175.
• Eduard A. Stefanescu, Simioan Petrovan, William H. Daly, Ioan I. Negulescu, "Elongational Rheology of Polymer/Clay Dispersions: Determination of Orientational Extent in Elongational Flow Processes," Macromolecular Materials and Engineering  (2008),  293(4),  303-309.
• Xiaoling Wei, Simioan Petrovan, John R. Collier, "Shear and Elongational Rheology of Polyethylenes with Different Molecular Characteristics. II. Elongational Rheology," Journal of Applied Polymer Science 104, 1184-1194 (2007).
• Xiaoling Wei, Simioan Petrovan, John R. Collier, Shear and "Elongational Rheology of Polyethylenes with Different Molecular Characteristics. I. Shear Rheology," Journal of Applied Polymer Science 105, 309-316 (2007).
• John R. Collier, Simioan Petrovan, Nick Hudson, Xiaoling Wei, "Elongational Rheology by Different Methods and Orientation Number," Journal of Applied Polymer Science 105, 3551–3561 (2007).
• J. Collier, S. Petrovan, P. Patil, and B. Collier, "Elongational rheology of fiber forming polymers," Journal of Materials Science 40 (2005) 5133-5137.
• Simioan Petrovan, Ioan I. Negulescu and John R. Collier, "Elongational and Shear Rheology of Cellulosic and Lignocellulosic Solutions in N-Methylmorpholine Oxide Monohydrate," Cell. Chem. Technol. 35 (1-2), 89-102 (2001).
• S. Petrovan, J. R. Collier, and I. I. Negulescu, "Rheology of Cellulosic N-Methylmorpholine Oxide Monohydrate Solutions of Different Degree of Polymerization," Journal of Applied Polymer Science 79, 396-405 (2001).