Dr. Niepa is the Arthur Hamerschlag Career Development Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA. He started his academic journey in Côte d'Ivoire after receiving an Associate Degree in Food Science and a research experience at the Pasteur Institute. He then moved to Germany to pursue his education in bioengineering at the University of Dortmund and transferred to Syracuse University. He received his B.Sc. in Bioengineering (2009) and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (2014) with honors from Syracuse University. His doctoral study of the Electrochemical Control of Bacterial Persister Cells under Profs. Dacheng Ren and Jeremy Gilbert focused on developing an electrochemical technology against drug-resistant and persistent bacteria, which was awarded two US patents. During his Ph.D. study, Dr. Niepa co-founded in 2011 Helios Innovative Technologies Inc. (now acquired by Leviant, Inc.), a medical device company that develops automated sterilization systems to fight bacterial cross-contamination. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship for Academic Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Chemical Engineering Profs. Kathleen Stebe, Daeyeon Lee, Hyun Koo (Dentistry) and Mark Goulian (Biology) to develop new methods to study microbial dynamics in artificial microniches and thin films. In 2017, he joined the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Since Fall 2023, he leads his microBiointerface Lab at CMU into multidisciplinary approaches to solve problems associated with microorganisms relevant to the environment, healthcare, and food industry. Dr. Niepa is the recipient of the 2022 NIH Director’s New Innovator, the 2022 NSF CAREER, and the 2019 NSF S-STEM Awards to promote diversity and excellence in engineering research and education.