Joseph Peterson, who recently completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., will be joining the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in July as an assistant professor.
Peterson’s research focuses on the nonlinear flow behavior of polymers and emulsions — building, simplifying and solving continuum models to better understand them. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Santa Barbara.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Peterson has worked at 3M as both an intern and technical aide in the company’s Safety and Graphics Laboratory. At Cambridge, he has worked on constitutive equations for the processing of wormlike micelles and dense emulsions, which was funded in part by Unilever PLC, a U.K.-based multinational consumer goods company.