Division Director, CBET, NSF

Richard Dickinson

Dr. Dickinson has spent most of his career at the University of Florida (UF) devoted to teaching and research. As chair of the UF chemical engineering department, he secured support for an overhaul of the undergraduate laboratory, six new endowed faculty positions, and the construction of a new building. Before serving as the department’s chair, he was its director of graduate studies for five years. His excellence in the classroom was recognized with a UF Teacher-of-the-Year Award, the University’s highest honor for teaching.

Dickinson’s research makes connections between cell function and the physical and molecular properties of cells and their surroundings. For his research in cell motility, biomedical device-centered infections, and cell mechanics, Dickinson was named a UF Research Foundation Professor and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers. He and his collaborators have published 65 research articles and 7 book chapters, and he has supervised or co-supervised 17 Ph.D. graduates.

Dickinson earned his B.S. at the University of Washington and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, both in chemical engineering. Prior to joining UF, he held a postdoctoral appointment in chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin and was a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow in theoretical biology at the University of Bonn in Germany.

Dickinson currently serves as associate editor of Chemical Engineering Education and is on the editorial board of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering. He is an active member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Biomedical Engineering Society.