Krista S. Walton

Krista S. Walton is an American chemical engineer. She is the Robert "Bud" Moeller Faculty Fellow and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology ."The Walton Lab" "College of Engineering at Georgia Tech"
==Background and Education==
Walton grew up on her family's farm in Killen, Alabama, and graduated from Brooks High School in 1995. She completed her B.S.E. in chemical and materials engineering from the University of Alabama-Huntsville in 2000 and obtained her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2005 under the direction of M. Douglas LeVan. Walton was awarded an Alternative Energy Fellowship by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund in 2005 and completed postdoctoral research with Randall Q. Snurr in Chemical & Biological Engineering at Northwestern University from 2005-2006. "Prof. Walton Bio"
== Academic Career ==
Walton began her faculty career at Kansas State University as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in 2006. She won several prestigious research awards during that time, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2007. Walton moved to the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 2009. She received tenure in 2012 and was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 2016. Walton became the founding Director and Lead PI of Georgia Tech's DOE Energy Frontier Research Center UNCAGE-ME in 2014 and led her team to a renewal in 2018. She has served as Associate Editor for the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research since 2014 and has been active in the Separations Division of AIChE for over 15 years. Walton served as Treasurer in the International Adsorption Society 2010-2015 and is currently the co-chair of the upcoming 14th International Conference on the Fundamentals of Adsorption (FOA14) to be held in the US in 2022. Walton was recently selected into the 2020 cohort of the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG) and will serve a two-year term. The DSSG is directed by the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Walton serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, having been appointed to the role in Fall 2019.
== Research Interests ==
Applications of interest include CO2 capture, air purification, and natural gas upgrading. Her group is particularly interested in the behavior and modeling of complex mixture adsorption and seeks to develop structure-property relationships for adsorption and chemical stability of metal-organic frameworks. She has mentored 18 Ph.D. graduates from her group and published over 100 peer-reviewed articles. She has also written several book chapters and is a co-author of Chapter 16: Adsorption and Ion Exchange in the recent 9th edition of Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook. Walton is active in the research community and has presented over 100 keynotes, plenary lectures, and invited seminars. 
==Awards and recognition==
*Selected to 2020-2022 cohort of the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG)
*University of Alabama-Huntsville Alumni of Achievement Award, 2015
*ACS Women Chemists Committee Rising Star Award, 2015
*UAH College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker, 2015
*Young Scientist Delegation, IAP/World Economic Forum's "Summer Davos" in Dalian, People's Republic of China, Invitee (1 of 2 US Young Scientists chosen after nomination by the US National Academies), 2011
*CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, 2009 
*Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), DoD Recipient, 2007
*Army Research Office Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, 2007
*American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Alternative Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005
*AIChE Separations Division Graduate Research Award, Adsorption and Ion Exchange, 2005 
*IBM Graduate Fellowship, 2000-2005
==References==
==External links==
*Georgia Tech ChBE Faculty Profile
*The Walton Research Group
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century American engineers
Category:American chemical engineers
Category:Georgia Tech faculty
Category:Vanderbilt University alumni
Category:University of Alabama-Huntsville alumni
Category:American women engineers
Category:Women chemists and engineers
Category:1970s births
Category:Chemical engineering
Category:Women chemical engineers