David J. Dixon holds the Robert L. Sandvig Professorship in the Karen M. Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT).
He is a chemical engineer with BS/MS degrees from SDSMT and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. At SDSMT, he has served as: Principal Investigator for an NSF-I/UCRC BioEnergy Center; department chair, starting up a chemical and biomolecular engineering PhD program; a Fulbright Scholar, developing university-level partnerships in Germany, Mongolia, and Peru; and an instructor offering the department’s first stand-alone course on process safety. David received SDSMT’s 2019 Presidential Outstanding Professor Award.
His research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Innovative Research, and industry — in diverse areas such as protective membranes, water remediation, and applied solar energy. He has industrial process engineering experience at Dow Corning. Currently, he serves as an AIChE Board Director and is an Institute Fellow.
He remains active in the Student Chapters (Chair, 2006–2007), the Career and Education Operating Council (CEOC) membership committee, and on AIChE’s Chem-E-Car Competition organizing committee, where he has been involved since its inception. Dixon served as an AIChE Student Chapter advisor, a Group 4 (Education) National Program Committee chair (2004–2005), and chaired CEOC in 2020.