Christopher Boyce

Christopher Boyce is associate professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia Engineering. Boyce’s research examines the fundamentals of multiphase flows to spark advances in energy, health, and the environment. 

Flow, the mixing and segregation of granular (sandlike) particles such as ores, seeds and catalytic particles, is critical to a range of processes and devices in energy production, mining, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and nature. The opaque nature of these flows as well as the complex rheology involving dynamic transitions between fluidlike and solidlike behavior have long hampered the modeling, control, and scale-up of multiphase granular flow devices. Boyce develops and utilizes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical imaging as well as discrete and continuum modeling techniques to characterize multiphase granular flows and associated flow instabilities. His research also develops novel techniques that combine gas flow and vibration to fluidize granular materials so that they undergo structured, scalable flow dynamics with controlled mixing or segregation of particles. Beyond fundamental studies of the mechanisms underlying structured flow instabilities, Boyce applies these structured flows to technologies in mining, energy, and water treatment.

Boyce received his BS in chemical engineering and physics from MIT and his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge in 2015 as a Gates Cambridge Scholar; at Cambridge, he won the Danckwerts-Pergamon Prize for the best PhD thesis in chemical engineering. He completed postdoctoral research positions at Princeton University and ETH Zurich before joining Columbia in 2018. He is an active member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Particle Technology Forum (PTF) and the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD), and he serves on the editorial board of the journal Powder Technology. He has been recognized with the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program Award, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in science, and the Sabic Young Professional Award for excellence in particle technology from the AIChE.