Brian Davison, chief scientist for biotechnology and a Corporate Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named president-elect of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the world’s largest chemical engineering professional society.
Beginning January 1, 2026, Davison will serve the 60,000-plus member society for a three-year term — one year each as president-elect, president and past-president.
Davison is a Fellow of AIChE, has previously served on the society’s board of directors, and is a trustee of the AIChE Foundation. He is also a Fellow of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He has served on the board of the AIChE Society for Biological Engineering since 2012.
He previously served as chief science officer for the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation and its predecessor organization, the DOE BioEnergy Science Center. Davison is recognized as a Distinguished Inventor at ORNL and has earned an R&D 100 award, an ORNL Technology Transfer award and the Charles D. Scott Award for distinguished contributions from the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.
Davison holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Stephanie Seay
