Ronald J. Willey

Professor Emeritus,  Chemical Engineering

Contact

Research Focus

Process safety education High pressure chemical processes

Education

  • B.S. (Chemical Engineering) University of New Hampshire, 1974
  • Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering) University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1984

Honors & Awards

  • Outstanding Faculty Service Award, College of Engineering 2019-2020.
  • Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
  • Norton H. Walton/Russell L. Miller Award in Safety/Loss Prevention 2013. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in and contributions to chemical engineering in the areas of loss prevention, safety, and health.
  • Gary Leach Recognition Award 2011 (a team award related to the integration of process safety/hazard recognition into the chemical engineering curriculum and accreditation requirements) issued by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the AIChE.
  • Gary Leach Recognition Award 2007 (a team award related to the implementation of improvement of safety with the Chem-E-Car Competition) issued by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the AIChE.
  • Gary Leach Recognition Award 2006 (a team award to the Boston Section AIChE leadership).
  • ASEE New England Section Award for Section Outstanding Leader: 2004.
  • Member Order of the Hippocampus, Boston Section of the AIChE 2003.
  • Omega Xi Epsilon Award: Best Professor 2011, 2010, 2004 & 2001.
  • DiPietro Young Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, NU, 1988-9.
  • Alloy Surfaces Co., Inc. Fellowship, University  of Massachusetts, 1982-3.
  • Atlantic Richfield’s Academic Excellence Award – Mass., 1981.
  • Presidential Achievement Award, Mass. Jaycees, 1980.
  • Dean P. Williamson Award, UNH, 1974.,Tau Beta Pi, UNH, 1973., Pi Mu Epsilon, UNH, 1973, Phi Beta Delta, 2005, Northeastern University

Research Overview

Process safety education High pressure chemical processes

Undergraduate

Oct 12, 2021

Announcing Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awardees

Several engineering students and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of Northeastern’s Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awards. The PEAK Experiences Awards are a progressively structured sequence of opportunities designed to support learners as they continue climbing to new heights of achievement in undergraduate research and creative endeavor throughout their Northeastern journeys. ASCENT AWARDS […]

Ronald Willey

Faculty

Nov 02, 2020

Willey published in Processed Safety Progress

ChE Professor Ronald Willey published “The Nature of Ammonium Nitrate Decomposition and Explosions” in Process Safety Progress which focuses on a thermodynamic understanding of why ammonium nitrate is considered nonhazardous by some groups, and extremely hazardous by other groups.

Faculty

Sep 10, 2020

Faculty and Staff Awards 2020

Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2019-2020 academic school year.

Student Groups

Nov 15, 2019

AIChE Members Attend National Conference and Place 14th in Chem-E-Car Competition

Twenty-one chemical engineering students attended the AIChE National Conference in Orlando, Florida, along with a number of their professors.

student group in spain at chemical plant

Students

Aug 23, 2019

Dialogue of Civilizations: Process Safety Abroad in Spain

Twenty-one second-year chemical engineering students joined Professor Ronald J. Willey and Program Assistant Alexis Dubs (ChE’20) for a five-week study abroad experience in July and August 2019.  The dialog featured process safety as practiced abroad that included visits to Dow Chemical, BASF, and Clariant, chemical facilities located near Tarragona Spain.   The students also completed a […]

Faculty

Aug 27, 2018

Willey Delivers Keynote Address at the 11th International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology

Ron Willey, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, delivered the lead keynote presentation at the 11th International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology in Shanghai, China. Professor Willey presented results in paper entitled “Instruction of Hazard Analysis Methods for Chemical Process Safety at the University Level”.  Co-authors of this paper included […]

Faculty

Oct 30, 2017

Willey Delivers Keynote Presentation at C-RISE3

Chemical Engineering Professor Ron Willey delivered a keynote presentation for the Third Workshop and Symposium on Safety and Integrity Management of Operations in Harsh Environments hosted by the Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (C-RISE) in St. John's, Newfoundland on October 18th. Willey's presentation for C-Rise3 is entitled, "Layers of Protection Analysis Combined with BowTie Analysis: […]

Undergraduate

Apr 24, 2017

Research from ChemE Undergraduate Deb Pano Featured on the Cover of Process Safety Progress

Deb Pano is a 4th year Chemical Engineering student pursuing her BS and MS degrees concurrently. She first became interested in process safety after traveling on Professor Ron Willey’s Dialogue of Civilizations in Tarragona, Spain during the summer of 2015. During this trip, Professor Willey taught a course on process safety which included visits to […]

Graduate

May 09, 2016

Chemical Engineering Announces Process Safety Graduate Certificate at Global Congress of Process Safety

The Department of Chemical Engineering announced their new graduate certificate in process safety engineering at this year’s Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS), which was held in Houston, TX.

Jul 29, 2014

Preparing Titania Nanotubes

ChE Professor Ron Willey was awarded a patent for his method of creating “Titania nanotubes prepared by anodization in chloride-containing electrolytes”.

View All Related News