Assistant Professor, Queen’s University
Dr. Kevin De France joined Queen’s University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering in May 2022. He was named to the 2024 Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40, and is the recipient of the 2024 Queen’s University Undergraduate Research Mentorship Award for his efforts in encouraging and mentoring undergraduate scholars. His research focuses on the design of sustainable materials using building blocks from cellulose and proteins.
Prior to his appointment at Queen’s, Kevin was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow in The Cellulose & Wood Materials Lab at Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science & Technology, where he focused on understanding structure-function relationships in bio-based nanomaterials, and translation toward commercialization. This included the design of sprayable food-packaging from cellulose nanofibers, emulsion stabilized fungal propagules for biological control, and composite films from cellulose nanocrystals and protein fibers. Kevin earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University (2019), under the supervision of Dr. Todd Hoare and Dr. Emily Cranston, where his research focused on the design of cellulose nanocrystal hydrogels for tissue engineering applications. He was awarded the TAPPI Nano Division Student Award in 2019 to recognize his research contributions and service to the TAPPI Nano Division as a PhD student.