PROFESSOR PROFILE

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Andre Palmer, who joined the Chemical Engineering Department this year. Dr. Palmer brought impressive credentials as well as new research interests to the ChEg department with his arrival. We wish him the best in his future here at Notre Dame!

Where are you originally from?

I'm originally ffrom Trinidad, in the West Indies.

How are you dealing with these South Bend winters then?

They're e definitely different from a southern Caribbean climate!

Why did you decide to be an engineer?

Well, I liked physics and math and the natural sciences. I decided to apply these natural sciences to what'’s practical so taht'’s why I chose engineering.

Where did you go to school?

I got my B.S. degree from Howard University in 1995 and my PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1998.

How did you end up at Notre Dame?

Well, I just saw an ad in Chemical Engineering News, and I applied. After my interview, Notre Dame made me an offer. Then my wife and I visited South Bend a couple of times and we enjoyed our visits and the people that we met, so we decided to move to South Bend and come to Notre Dame.

How’s your first year going at Notre Dame?

I'’m really enjoying it a lot. 'I’m trying to get my lab together and my classes together. It has been a nice challenge to get my classes together and make sure I am doing a good job teaching.

What type of research are you doing?

Well, my research is basically in the field of biomedical engineering so I have a lot of biomedical projects going on. One of the projects I'’m working on is to create an artificial blood substitute. It'’s actually a universal blood substitute so that it can be used in people with different blood types for transfusions. That'’s actually my main project.

Do you have any advice for Notre Dame engineering students?

Try to figure out what you want to do after you graduate from here. If you want to go to graduate school, it would be helpful if you could do some undergrad research. If you want to work in industry, it would be helpful if you went on some internships. And, the key thing is that if you want to go into research, I encourage people to start early, like freshman year, doing research. You'’d get a lot of experience freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year, and when you leave here, you'’re really well prepared for grad school. So, I encourage everyone to do some type of undergrad research.

Since you’re new to Notre Dame, what’s your favorite spot on campus?

The bookstore. It'’s nice and modern, and I can get some coffee there.