Rate My Professor Wesley Burghardt

Wesley R. Burghardt is Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Engineering at Northwestern University. He joined the Northwestern faculty in 1990 and has served as chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Burghardt is responsible for McCormick's undergraduate education program, including curriculum, professional development, and personal development. He earned a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. His research interests focus on rheology and polymer physics, seeking to understand the dynamics of complex fluids during flow. The Burghardt lab emphasizes in-situ investigation of flow-induced structural changes using X-ray scattering techniques at Northwestern's synchrotron research facility at the Advanced Photon Source, as well as flow birefringence techniques to interrogate stresses in polymer melts and solutions. Selected publications include work on shear alignment mechanisms of close-packed spheres in a bulk ABA triblock copolymer (Macromolecules, 2022), capturing the transient microstructure of a physically assembled gel (Macromolecules, 2021), and local and global stretching of polymer chains during startup of extensional flow (ACS Macro Letters, 2019). Burghardt has been honored with teaching awards, including being named a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 2011.