Professor Walter G. Chapman is the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.  He has previously served as Associate Dean of Engineering for Energy Research, as Chair of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, and as the Director of the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute at Rice University.  Among his recognitions are the Humboldt Prize, the Donald L. Katz Award, multiple teaching awards and an Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Clemson University where he received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1988. After spending two years as a Research Engineer with Shell Development Company, he joined the Rice faculty in 1990. In 2011, Dr. Chapman received the George R. Brown School of Engineering Award for Superior Teaching.

Dr. Chapman’s research group uses tools such as molecular simulation, computer visualization, statistical mechanics, and NMR to discover how material properties and structure depend on molecular forces. Professor Chapman’s present research program focuses polymer solutions and blends, associating fluids, confined fluids, and flow assurance associated with natural gas hydrates and asphaltenes.  Professor Chapman's theoretical models and computational algorithms (including the SAFT equation of state and the polymer density functional theory iSAFT) are widely applied in the energy and high performance materials industries and they are the subject of research in dozens of academic groups.