Sureshkumar named chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering starting January 2027
September 1, 2026 - Carly Bowling
Radhakrishna “Suresh” Sureshkumar has been named chair of The University of New Mexico Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering following a national search with executive firm WittKiefer. He will begin the role in January 2027.
“I look forward to welcoming Dr. Sureshkumar to campus this spring. He brings a wealth of experience as an eminent scholar in Chemical Engineering and as a longtime department chair,” said Donna Riley, Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing. “We can’t wait for him to join our team and help us grow CBE as the department launches the state’s first bioengineering degree.”
He will join UNM School of Engineering from Syracuse University, where he is a distinguished professor and has previously served as chair of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering for 9 years. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Sureshkumar was a faculty member at Washington University from 1997 to 2006. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Delaware (’96), an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University (’92), and a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (’90).
In joining UNM, Sureshkumar looks forward to investing in the CBE department and amplifying impact by facilitating research and educational opportunities.
“The department has a long history of great standing among its peer group and is respected for the research it conducts, as well as its faculty — distinguished, mid- and early career,” he said. “I’m eager to combine core faculty expertise with the full reach of UNM’s intellectual power through collaborations with the health sciences ecosystem and other engineering departments, as the department launches its bioengineering degree.”
He was drawn to the position as an opportunity to support students, viewing higher education as an instrument for social transformation. The chance to develop a new ABET-accredited program was also an attractive element of the position for him. The new degree will provide a “quintessential bridge” between engineering and health care and produce numerous societal benefits for New Mexico, he said.
Sureshkumar also looks forward to elevating the footprint and impact of the Chemical Engineering program through strategic investments in energy and advanced materials research, both areas in which CBE has a rich history of outstanding scholarship and fruitful collaborations with Sandia and Los Alamos.
As a researcher at the intersections of fluid dynamics, soft matter physics, nanotechnology, and computational modeling, Sureshkumar’s work has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles with 6700 citations. He has mentored 23 Ph.D. students, 4 M.S. graduates, 8 post-docs, and 20 undergraduate researchers.
Sureshkumar sees himself as a teacher-scholar with broader interests in literature and fine arts. As chair, he hopes to shepherd faculty, staff and students while fostering a culture of inclusion where everyone feels they can express their views.
