Richard Coale Willson | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Houston |
| Thesis | Fermentation product recovery by supercritical fluid extraction : microbiological and phase equilibrium aspects (1988) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles L. Cooney Richard C. Reid |
| Website | Willson Lab |
Richard C. Willson is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston noted for his work on the development of purification, detection, and measurement technologies for applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing, process control, and medical diagnostics. [1]
Willson received B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Caltech in 1981 and 1982, respectively. He moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his doctoral work, where he worked under Charles L. Cooley and Richard C. Reid and received his PhD in 1998.
Willson joined the Department of Chemical Engineering (now the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering) at the University of Houston in 1988, where he is currently the Huffington-Woestemeyer Professor.
He has developed methods to detect viruses and other biothreats based on the materials underpinning reflective vests, [2] glow-in-the-dark stars, [3] and glow sticks. [4] In 2024, he led a project on antibody measurement as part of a grant from the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals. [5]
His most-cited research article established the technique of combinatorial screening for catalysts. [6] Other highly-cited research articles report DNA aptamer binding to vascular endothelial growth factor [7] and develop luminescent nanoparticles as reporters in a sensitive lateral flow assay. [8]
He is a member of the editorial boards of Biotechnology Progress and PLOS One. He contributed episodes on chromatography [9] and avocado seeds [10] to Engines of Our Ingenuity.