Beitle Named Interim Head of Department of Chemical Engineering

The U of A College of Engineering has named Robert "Bob" Beitle Jr. as interim head of the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering, effective July 1, 2026, as Keisha Walters returns to the faculty after serving as department head since 2021.

Walters, the Ralph E. Martin Leadership Chair in Chemical Engineering, will continue her research in the field of nano-polymer engineering within the department. She joined the U of A in 2021 as department head, having previously served on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma and Mississippi State University. Under her leadership, the department has made numerous achievements, including recently earning the Provost Award for Departmental Excellence in Faculty Mentoring.

Kim Needy, dean of the College of Engineering, thanked Walters for her service while welcoming Beitle to the role. "I'm grateful to Keisha for her leadership of the department over the past several years. Under her guidance, chemical engineering has grown, welcomed several new outstanding faculty and strengthened relations with the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers. I'm glad she'll continue to contribute to the department as a member of the faculty," Needy said. "In Bob, we have someone who brings a rare combination of scholarly excellence and institutional leadership to this position. His decades of service across campus give him a perspective that few can match, and that will be invaluable as the Chemical Engineering Department continues to grow. I look forward to working with him in this new capacity."

Beitle holds the Jim L. Turpin Professorship of Chemical and Biochemical Separations and brings more than three decades of research, teaching and leadership experience at the U of A to the role. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in August 1993, was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in 1998 and achieved the rank of full professor in 2006. He recently vacated the position of senior associate vice chancellor for research and innovation after 12 years serving at the institutional level. His primary research interests are in biochemical engineering, with an emphasis on bioseparation and fermentation.

A dedicated scholar, Beitle teaches upper-level and graduate courses in chemical engineering and enjoys challenging students to apply their fundamental learning across a variety of settings. He has earned teaching awards and has been recognized as an outstanding mentor at the U of A multiple times. As a researcher, Beitle has developed various methods of recombinant protein expression and isolation through mathematical and physical models. He has been fortunate to receive federal support for the vast majority of his tenure at Arkansas from the CBET (Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems) and MCB (Molecular and Cellular Biosciences) Divisions of the National Science Foundation.

Beitle was recently selected as the 2025-2026 Biggadike Faculty Fellow, an appointment in which he is developing a commercialization roadmap to help engineering faculty translate research discoveries into market-ready innovations and commercial ventures. His entrepreneurship credentials include serving as co-principal investigator for NSF I-Corps campus programming, along with work that has led to externally funded partnerships, six patents, two licenses and two startup companies.

"Chemical engineering at Arkansas provides a unique environment where faculty interested in teaching and research, graduate and undergraduate, can excel. I will continue to foster this environment while seeking new opportunities for the department," Beitle said.