Life

Mark Holtzapple earned his B.S. in chemical engineering

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in 1978. He proceeded to earn his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 in 1981. From 1981 to 1985, Mark Holtzapple served in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of captain and researched water desalination and microclimate cooling. He joined the Texas A&M Faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1986.

Awards and honors

• Texas A&M Ingenuity Award, 2003
• Testified at field hearing before U.S. House of Representatives, 2003
• Halliburton Professorship, 2002-03
• Corps of Cadets Teaching Award, 2002
• Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award, 2001
• Ford Fellowship, 2001
• Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, 1996

Projects

Dr. Holtzapple is a founding member of StarRotor Corporation

StarRotor Corporation

StarRotor Corporation is a startup company founded to commercialize technology from Texas A&M University. It was incorporated in March 2001 by Dr. Mark Holtzapple and Andrew Rabroker...

, a company that produces an innovative compressor/expander. Holtzapple is currently developing engines, air conditioners, and integrated motors/generators. The StarRotor engine is hypothesized to be 2–3 times more fuel-efficient than modern commercial engines.

In addition, Dr. Holtzapple is currently investigating methods for additional nutritive recovery from biomass in chicken feathers and agricultural waste.

Teaching

Dr. Holtzapple is the primary professor of CHEN 205 (Introduction to Thermodynamic Principles). In the past, he has taught ENGR 111 and ENGR 112 (Introduction to Engineering I&II) and co-wrote the accompanying text, Foundations of Engineering.

Sources

• Texas A&M Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty: Mark Holtzapple http://www.che.tamu.edu/people/faculty/info?fid=47
• Texas A&M Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty: Mark Holtzapple http://www.che.tamu.edu/people/faculty/info?fid=47
• StarRotor Corporation personnel http://www.starrotor.com/AboutUs/People.aspx
• Texas A&M Department of Chemical Engineering Research: Mark Holtzapple http://che.tamu.edu/orgs/groups/Holtzapple/technologies.htm