Ronald J. Willey
Professor Emeritus, Chemical Engineering
Contact
- r.willey@northeastern.edu
- 360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Research Focus
Process safety education High pressure chemical processes
Education
- B.S. (Chemical Engineering) University of New Hampshire, 1974
- Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering) University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1984
Honors & Awards
- Outstanding Faculty Service Award, College of Engineering 2019-2020.
- Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Norton H. Walton/Russell L. Miller Award in Safety/Loss Prevention 2013. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in and contributions to chemical engineering in the areas of loss prevention, safety, and health.
- Gary Leach Recognition Award 2011 (a team award related to the integration of process safety/hazard recognition into the chemical engineering curriculum and accreditation requirements) issued by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the AIChE.
- Gary Leach Recognition Award 2007 (a team award related to the implementation of improvement of safety with the Chem-E-Car Competition) issued by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the AIChE.
- Gary Leach Recognition Award 2006 (a team award to the Boston Section AIChE leadership).
- ASEE New England Section Award for Section Outstanding Leader: 2004.
- Member Order of the Hippocampus, Boston Section of the AIChE 2003.
- Omega Xi Epsilon Award: Best Professor 2011, 2010, 2004 & 2001.
- DiPietro Young Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, NU, 1988-9.
- Alloy Surfaces Co., Inc. Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, 1982-3.
- Atlantic Richfield’s Academic Excellence Award – Mass., 1981.
- Presidential Achievement Award, Mass. Jaycees, 1980.
- Dean P. Williamson Award, UNH, 1974.,Tau Beta Pi, UNH, 1973., Pi Mu Epsilon, UNH, 1973, Phi Beta Delta, 2005, Northeastern University
Research Overview
Process safety education High pressure chemical processes
Oct 12, 2021
Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awardees for Undergrad Research
Several engineering and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of Northeastern’s Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awards from Northeastern’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Nov 02, 2020
Willey published in Processed Safety Progress
ChE Professor Ronald Willey published “The Nature of Ammonium Nitrate Decomposition and Explosions” in Process Safety Progress which focuses on a thermodynamic understanding of why ammonium nitrate is considered nonhazardous by some groups, and extremely hazardous by other groups.
Sep 10, 2020
Faculty and Staff Awards 2020
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2019-2020 academic school year.
Nov 15, 2019
AIChE Members Attend National Conference and Place 14th in Chem-E-Car Competition
Twenty-one chemical engineering students attended the AIChE National Conference in Orlando, Florida, along with a number of their professors.
Aug 23, 2019
Dialogue of Civilizations: Process Safety Abroad in Spain
Twenty-one second-year chemical engineering students joined Professor Ronald J. Willey and Program Assistant Alexis Dubs (ChE’20) for a five-week study abroad experience in July and August 2019. The dialog featured process safety as practiced abroad that included visits to Dow Chemical, BASF, and Clariant, chemical facilities located near Tarragona Spain. The students also completed a […]
Aug 27, 2018
Willey Delivers Keynote Address at the 11th International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology
Ron Willey, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, delivered the lead keynote presentation at the 11th International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology in Shanghai, China. Professor Willey presented results in paper entitled “Instruction of Hazard Analysis Methods for Chemical Process Safety at the University Level”. Co-authors of this paper included […]
Oct 30, 2017
Willey Delivers Keynote Presentation at C-RISE3
Chemical Engineering Professor Ron Willey delivered a keynote presentation for the Third Workshop and Symposium on Safety and Integrity Management of Operations in Harsh Environments hosted by the Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (C-RISE) in St. John's, Newfoundland on October 18th. Willey's presentation for C-Rise3 is entitled, "Layers of Protection Analysis Combined with BowTie Analysis: […]
Apr 24, 2017
Research from ChemE Undergraduate Deb Pano Featured on the Cover of Process Safety Progress
Deb Pano is a 4th year Chemical Engineering student pursuing her BS and MS degrees concurrently. She first became interested in process safety after traveling on Professor Ron Willey’s Dialogue of Civilizations in Tarragona, Spain during the summer of 2015. During this trip, Professor Willey taught a course on process safety which included visits to […]
May 09, 2016
Chemical Engineering Announces Process Safety Graduate Certificate at Global Congress of Process Safety
The Department of Chemical Engineering announced their new graduate certificate in process safety engineering at this year’s Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS), which was held in Houston, TX.
Jul 29, 2014
Preparing Titania Nanotubes
ChE Professor Ron Willey was awarded a patent for his method of creating “Titania nanotubes prepared by anodization in chloride-containing electrolytes”.