I have the best job as a Professor of Chemical Engineering. After graduating with a Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Barbara, I moved to Duluth, Minnesota, in 1992 (the Stone Age) to start my academic career at UMD.
I know what you’re thinking, so let’s address the elephant in the room – Minnesota weather is quite a shock for a west coast kid. However, the beauty of our region, from the BWWCA to the shores of Lake Superior, is world-class and eased my transition from the sunny California beaches to the startling blue ice and sea smoke of Gitchi-Gami. So, I traded in my surfboard for a canoe and never looked back!
Shortly after arriving at UMD, I was integrated into the fascinating world of taconite through collaborations with scientists and engineers at the Natural Resources Research Institute’s Coleraine Minerals Research Laboratory.  I applied my mathematical modeling and simulation training to the pelletizing furnaces looking for opportunities to lower emissions, improve energy efficiencies, and innovate new pellet processing technologies. Despite several tours of pelletizing plants across the Iron Range, I still find the range of scales required to create a taconite pellet intriguing. With David Englund at NRRI, we were the first researchers worldwide to model the fluid flow, energy distribution, and solid phases in a pelletizing furnace in three dimensions. We work with chemistry at the nano and micro-scales, energy transfer at the pellet scale, to the significantly larger scales of transfer and transportation through the furnaces, railroads, and lake shipping.
I have taught fluid flow and heat transfer courses, separations and purification, numerical modeling and simulation, and unit operations design at UMD. I love my job because I have the privilege of working with bright young students in the classrooms, labs, and research. I also serve as the academic advisor to several student groups, including a chapter of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). We travel to professional conferences, tour company facilities, invite expert speakers, and serve our communities at science fairs, highway cleanup, and outreach to K12 programs.
I am currently serving as the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at UMD, leading a faculty dedicated to our students learning and solving problems in biomedical engineering, environmental remediation, solar energy, and advanced materials.
Life Outside UMD
My family loves NE Minnesota. My four children and six granddaughters are off doing their thing in Vancouver, Boston, and Houston, but the lure of the lake draws them home as often as possible to paddle and fish. My youngest daughter recently relocated to Duluth with her husband, working as an education specialist at the Great Lakes Aquarium and an engineer at Cirrus Aircraft.
We like to support our local community. We volunteer with Grandma’s Marathon, keeping runners hydrated were the water station captains for several years at mile marker 21. We recently dipped our toes into acting by playing the parts of art collectors in the new holiday movie Merry Kiss Cam.
If I’m not in the lab, you’ll find me on the Superior Hiking trail or on the water, taking in all our beautiful region has to offer.
Contact Dr. Richard Davis
172 Engineering Building
[email protected]
+1 218 726 6162