Ezra’s Round Table / Systems Seminar: Ray Smith (EPA)

Watch it on Zoom

Bio:
Ray Smith has been a chemical engineer in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research & Development for 20 years, after earning his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

During his tenure with EPA, Dr. Smith has established an expertise in sustainability by performing research in the areas of life cycle assessment, biofuels, industrial ecology, process design, sustainability indicators, optimization, and decision making. His most recent work focuses on exposure and risk assessments, where he develops methods for rapidly estimating releases for chemicals from manufacturing processes.

In his research, Dr. Smith has modeled phenomena at multiple scales, from small-scale evaporation through unit operations and chemical processes up to full supply chains. He spearheaded a research program entitled, Sustainable Supply Chain Design: Biofuels and led the EPA team on Manufacturing & Operations for a cooperative agreement. He is currently leading an EPA task on rapid release estimation using machine learning and process modeling, as well as research projects on anaerobic digestion and post-consumer use activities for plastics.

He has won scientific and technological achievement awards and a team achievement award, among others. He is co-inventor and developer of the GREENSCOPE process sustainability methodology and tool. Over the course of his career, he has been employed in industry and collaborated with domestic and international academic, industrial, and consultant groups.

Dr. Smith has volunteered his time to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), serving as the chair of the Environmental Division, the Sustainable Engineering Forum, and the Research and New Technology Committee. In 2018 he chaired the International Congress on Sustainable Science and Engineering, and in 2019 he became a fellow of the AIChE.