Professor, Nerd and Sci-FI lover

Dr. Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering department at the University of California, Riverside. She joined the University in 2018 after receiving her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining UC Riverside, she was a Provost postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also worked previously as a Forensic scientist for the Philadelphia police department and as a Refinery chemist at Sunoco Chemicals in Philadelphia after receiving a B.S. in Chemistry from Temple University. Her research group develops sustainable processes using an interdisciplinary toolset from materials, environmental and chemical engineering.
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2023                          NPR Science Friday interview on Agricultural Waste for Water Filters
2023                          Early Career Editorial Advisory Board for ChemSusChem and ChemPhysChem
2022                                 Selected as one of Popular Science "Brilliant 10 Scientists"
2022                                 NSF Career Award Recipient (NSF CBET Award No. 2143578)
2022                                 Material Science of Extreme Environments Young  Investigator Awardee (JHU)
2022-                               Editorial Advisory Board Member of ACS Catalysis 
2021                                  Selected for Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Natl Academy of Engineering
2021                                  Scialog Fellow - Negative Emissions Science
2020                                 Hellman Fellow 
2018 – Present               Assistant Professor, University of California Riverside, Chemical and 
                                         Environmental Engineering, Riverside, CA
2017 – 2018                     Provost Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania,
                                         Heterogeneous Catalysis, Philadelphia, PA  
2016 - 2018                     Founder and CEO for Nardo Technology, Inc., Urbana, IL
2011 – 2017                      Graduate Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
                                         Defect Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Theoretical Chemistry, Urbana, IL
2009 – 2011                     Forensic Scientist, Philadelphia Police Department,
                                         Drug Chemistry, Philadelphia, PA 
2007 – 2009                    Refinery Chemist, Sunoco Chemicals, Philadelphia Frankford Plant,
                                         Philadelphia, PA