Brent Shanks

Brent Shanks is the Mike and Jean Steffenson Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Director of the NSF-Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) at Iowa State University.  He was a research engineer from 1988-1997 and department manager from 1997-1999 at Shell Chemical Company.  He received a B.S. Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University, 1983; M.S. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1985; and Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1988.  Professor Shanks’ research projects include Catalytic Conversion of Biorenewable Feedstocks; Mesoporous Metal Oxides as Nanostructured Catalytic Hosts; and Potassium-Promoted Iron Oxide Catalysts.