Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Expert to Head Colorado State University’s Chemical and Bioresource Engineering Department

A. Ted Watson has been named head of Colorado State University’s Department of Chemical and Bioresource Engineering.

Watson was director of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Division of the Engineering Imaging Laboratory at Texas A&M University.

While chemical engineering has been a program at Colorado State for 25 years, only recently has it achieved department status, Watson said. His goal is to improve instruction and help further the College of Engineering’s goal of bringing more national recognition to the university’s programs.

"In that regard, I think it’s important to retain a healthy graduate program and attract the best graduate students," Watson said. "I believe we’ll need to increase external funding for the program through research grants and improved ties with our alumni.

"We’ll want to look over our undergraduate education during the next year or so in order to have the best program we can, one that addresses the future of chemical engineering."

Watson earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 and his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1980. He began teaching at Texas A&M in 1979 and became a full professor in 1992.

Watson’s research develops nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic and imaging techniques to probe heterogeneous materials. A key emphasis is the mathematical simulation of the flow of fluids in porous materials. The work has many important applications, including production from petroleum reservoirs and environmental remediation of groundwater.