Instruction and Leadership Team
Instruction Team
The instructors for the Master of Engineering Leadership (MEL) in Sustainable Process Engineering are renowned in their fields. They’ve built strong connections and research partnerships with leading industry players and have experience commercializing technologies and launching new ventures.
Dr. Naoko Ellis
Dr. Naoko Ellis is a professor in the UBC Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering with a profound desire to help create a low carbon future. Her commitment to a sustainable future is evident in her research interests, which include biomass utilization (bio-oil upgrading, biochar potential and hydrogen production), sustainability leadership, CO2 capture (chemical looping systems) and transdisciplinary learning. She is curious about how learning with and from “others” – crossing the disciplinary boundaries – can inform and frame the complex societal problems we face.
Sergio Berretta
As an independent consultant helping companies with their chemical process scale-ups, Sergio Berretta brings his passion for applying engineering principles in the development of new technologies and solutions to existing industrial challenges. He has over 25 years of broad experience in the engineering design and commissioning of industrial chemical plants, having led the engineering design and commissioning of eight world-scale chemical industrial plants and novel processes for companies in three continents. He was Chief Operating Officer of BC Research from 2013-2018 and was a founding executive of the Carbon Capture and Conversion Institute.
Orlando Rojas
A recognized global leader in nanocelluloses, Dr. Orlando Rojas holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Forest Bio Products and is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He will lead the UBC BioProducts Institute, an enabler of the transition to a sustainable bio-based circular economy by using plant-based resources. Nanomaterials, colloids and surfaces form the basis of Dr. Rojas’ cross-disciplinary approach to understanding the fundamental principles involved in the design, manufacture and performance of biobased systems. Prior to joining UBC, he directed Finland’s FinnCERES flagship, a scientific cluster to advance the forest-based materials bio-economy.
Emily Cranston
Emily Cranston holds the President’s Excellence Chair in Forest Bio-products and is an Associate Professor in UBC’s departments of Wood Science and Chemical and Biological Engineering. She was previously an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at McMaster University and held the Canada Research Chair in Bio-Based Nanomaterials. Her research focuses on sustainable nanocomposites and hybrid materials from cellulose and other biopolymers, and her work has significantly impacted the broad scientific community, as evidenced by her H-index of 32, four patents and 85 peer-reviewed publications with over 4000 citations.
Leadership Team
Get to know the Sustainable Process Engineering Director who is leading the program.
Vikramaditya Yadav
Dr. Vikramaditya Yadav is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He has a BASc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo, a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT, and was a post-doctoral associate at Harvard. His research group – the BioFoundry – uses metabolic and enzyme engineering to investigate and customize novel biosynthetic enzymes that can convert biomass-derived feedstocks into better fuels, pharmaceuticals and value-added chemicals.