Ana Torres
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Ana Inés Torres is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on sustainability and process systems engineering as applied to clean and sustainable energy. Torres earned her B.S. in Chemistry in 2003 and a diploma in Chemical Engineering in 2005, both from the Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay. In 2013, after two years of industrial experience, she earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014.
Most recently, Torres served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, in Uruguay. She has been invited to speak at many universities and conferences and was a keynote speaker at the Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering Incorporating the 68th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in 2018. She also served as a keynote at the "Unprecedented" Webinar Series on chemical innovation to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals in 2021. With experience as both an editor and reviewer, Torres has contributed to many journals, including Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (Springer) and Computational Methods in Chemical Engineering (Frontier), among others.
Research
Research includes nearly 25 years of experience working to create a better understanding of complex technical and scientific issues among policymakers in Washington, D.C. Areas of expertise include policy analysis, program evaluation, energy and environmental policy, innovation policy, and research and development policy."
Research is in the Process Systems Engineering area. It brings together modeling, analysis, and optimization to design clean and sustainable processes. Vast experience in the conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals, wind/sun energy storage in batteries, and chemicals (green hydrogen), CCS. Currently working on the reincorporation of end-of-life products/ residual materials into chemicals’ value chains (circular processes) with a focus on plastic wastes and rare earth/critical minerals.