Bio
Rachel N. Gaines is a chemical engineer specializing in the upgrading of complex wastes through electrocatalysis. She works across all three scales of chemical reaction engineering (interface, process, and system) to design practical reactions for non-ideal feedstocks. Her work has garnered commercial interest from several multinational corporations and led to successful academic follow-on grants.
Rachel also has over a decade of leadership experience from her roles as a research mentor and coach, where she worked with mentees across wide ranges of age and skill. She has served as a project and/or people manager for teams as small as 4 and as large as 31. Her mentees have won state and national awards and secured both Ph.D. program admissions and full-time industry job offers.
Professional Experience
Commercialization Analyst - Office of Technology Management, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lead Market Analyst - Million Patients Cured / Health Enovations, Inc.
Awards
Universities Research Association / Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education Research Fellow (2024)
TechnipFMC Fellow (2023)
Provost's Fellow (2019)
Hirschvogel Foundation Fellow (2019)
NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee (2019)
United States Field Hockey National Indoor & Development Team (2017-2021)
Education
B.S., Environmental Science (Appalachian State University)
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Professional Service
weSTEM Conference (Graduate Society of Women Engineers) - Deputy Director, Publicity Coordinator
Professional Affiliations
The Electrochemical Society (Member)
Society of Women Engineers (Member)
Other Publications
*Indicates corresponding author
- Sibal, A.P.; Gaines, R.N.; Friel, B.E.; Kenis, P.J.A.; Stillwell, A.S. Turning waste into value: Technoeconomic analysis and life cycle assessment of biodiesel-derived crude glycerol electrooxidation. Environmental Science & Technology, 2026.
- Zhao, Y.; Gaines, R.N.; Romo, A.I.B.; Rojas, J.A.; Kenis, P.J.A.; Rodriguez-Lopez, J. Valorization of glycerol through 2,2,6,6-Tetramethyl-1-Piperidine-N-Oxyl (TEMPO)-catalyzed electrochemical oxidation with high C3 product selectivity: Impact of stirred bulk versus flow electrolysis. ChemElectroChem, 2025.
- Gaines, R.N.; Sibal, A.P.; Bradley, A.M.; Griebler, J.J.; Shah, V.M.; Friel, B.E.; Rogers, S.A.; Stillwell, A.S.; Kenis, P.J.A. Electrolysis for valorization of industrially-sourced crude glycerol. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2025.
- Harris, L.C.; Gaines, R.N.; Hua, Q.; Lindsay, G.S.; Griebler, J.J.; Kenis, P.J.A.; Gewirth, A.A. Effect of glycerol concentration on rate and product speciation for Ni and Au-based catalysts. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2025.
- Gaines, R.N.*; LaFond, J.A.; Krawchuck, J.A.; Bays, N.R.; Kruse, S.M.; Kruichak, J.N. Statistical design of experiments enables rapid exploration of perfluorobutane sulfonate degradation. ECS Advances, 2025.
- Gaines, R.N.* Flow electrolysers for reaction scaling. Nature Reviews Clean Technology, 2025.
- Gaines, R.N.; Kleimenhagen, B.A.; Griebler, J.J.; Harris, L.C.; Gewirth, A.A.; Rogers, S.A.; Kenis, P.J.A. Optimizing the flow electrooxidation of glycerol using statistical design of experiments. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 2024.