New Faculty Virginia Tech's College of Engineering 2008-2009

Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS).
He will serve as chief technical officer and advisor to institute
Director Roop Mahajan, and will share responsibilities for technical
administration, setting strategic directions and allocating
resources on behalf of the institute. He is also an associate
professor of chemical engineering (ChE).
Cornelius comes to Virginia Tech from Sandia National
Laboratories (SNL), a national laboratory operated for the U.S.
Department of Energy by Sandia Corp. During his eight-year
tenure with SNL, Cornelius achieved recognition and respect
in both the industry and academic communities for excellence
in technically diverse rigorous research and publications,
teaching, and mentoring of post-doctorate, graduate, and undergraduate
students.
In his new position at Virginia Tech, Cornelius will continue
as an active researcher in synthetics and materials. His
research is focused upon the development of polymeric materials,
hybrid organic-inorganic materials, sol-gel chemistry,
and organically templated sol-gel “self-assembled” materials
within multiple research areas. Current research areas involve
the development of membrane materials for gas separations,
proton exchange membranes for hydrogen and methanol fuel
cells, anion-exchange membranes for water electrolysis, and
proton and anion exchange membranes for water desalination
via electro-dialysis, reverse osmosis, and alkaline fuel cells.
His research areas include polymer membranes and
hydrocarbon ionomers for fuel cells, water desalination via
reverse-osmosis and electro-dialysis, hydrogen production via
alkaline electrolysis, optical coatings for solar cells via sol-gel
chemistry, and gas separations with polymer, organic-inorganic
polymer composites, and surfactant-templated micro-porous
glasses. His overall research interest is in the study of the
interrelationships of structure, property, and function of polymers,
self-assembled materials, and hybrid organic-inorganic
materials.
His research has been supported by more than $16 million
in competitive research awards, and he has three awarded patents,
and two patents pending — all in the past seven years.
These research activities have resulted in numerous collaborations
with industry, other national laboratories, the National
Research Council of Canada, and university faculty throughout
the nation.
Prior to his position at Sandia Laboratories, Cornelius
worked in industry. He managed and set up experiments at a
pilot plant for Dow Chemical for the creation of Insite® metallocene
based polyolefins and EPDM elastomers that were used
as validation materials for the creation of Dupont Dow Elastomers.
At 3M he was in charge of the manufacture of three
product lines of non-woven filtration media.
Cornelius earned a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in ChE
from Virginia Tech in 2000 and in 1998, respectively. He received
a bachelor’s degree in ChE from Montana State University
in 1994. He has served as a member of the American
Indian Science Engineering Society, an associate member of
the American Chemical Society Committee on Minority Affairs,
and as outreach co-chair for the American Indian Outreach
Committee at Sandia National Laboratories. Additionally, he
has served as adjunct professor in the chemistry department
at Clemson University and in the ChE department at the University
of New Mexico, teaching and mentoring Ph.D. students.
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