Jennifer Sinclair Curtis is Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and former Dean of Engineering at the University of California, Davis. She has also served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Arizona, Lafayette College, Purdue University, and the University of Florida.  Her research focuses on the development and validation of particle flow models that have been extensively adopted by many computational fluid dynamics software packages, including a commercial simulation code which is used by 96 of the 100 largest industrial companies in the world to design chemical processes. 

She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).  She is recipient of numerous engineering research and education awards including AIChE’s Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Women Chemical Engineer, a Humboldt Research Award, a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award, and ASEE's Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education.

She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University and her BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.  She currently serves as Co-Chair of the National Academies’ Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology and as Vice-Chair of the AIChE Foundation Board of Trustees.