Jeff Harwell began working in surfactants and colloids in 1979, when he began his graduate research at the University of Texas studying surfactant mineral interactions and surfactant adsorption. His doctoral dissertation, on the chromatographic movement of surfactant mixtures, received the 1984 Victor K. LaMer Award for on outstanding dissertation from the Colloid and Surface Science division of the American Chemical Society.

After beginning his career in academia in 1982, Jeff continued his research in surfactants and colloids, including continuation of his work on surfactant adsorption. Jeff coined the term admicelle and is a co-inventor of the admicellar polymerization process. Applications of his work were initially in the area of chemical flooding for enhanced oil recovery, but soon branched out into consumer products and environmental remediation. He is a cofounder of Surbec Environmental LLC, and Chemical Flooding Technologies, Inc., as well as an inventor on multiple patents for the CoMoCat process for manufacturing single walled carbon nanotubes, a process now under license to SouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT). A major focus of Jeff’s work over the last two decades has been on design of microemulsions, with an emphasis on minimizing surfactant concentrations and minimizing surfactant losses through the mechanisms of adsorption and precipitation.

During almost 30 years at the University of Oklahoma Jeff has published nearly 200 referred papers and conference papers, and edited or coedited five books on surfactants and colloid science (many of which are available on our Resources page). His research has been supported by over $15 million in research grants, and he has performed contract research or served as a consultant for many corporations including SC Johnson, Ductil, Elk Petroleum, EA Engineering, Sinotech Engineering, Castrol, Schlumberger-Dowell, Dow Chemical Company, DuPont Specialty Chemicals, DuPont Environmental Remediation Services, Boerringer-Manheim, Weyerhauser, PPG Industries, Proctor & Gamble, Alpha Metals, Pickering EnviroRem, Inc., Kerr McGee, Arco Oil and Gas, Shell Development Company, Mobil Oil Company, Phillips Petroleum, Glaxo/Welcome, IBAH, Inc. EIC Laboratories, Inc., Hitachi Research, Kiwi Brands, James River Corporation, Eastman Kodak, Hart Chemical, Sandoz Chemicals, Lubrizol Corporation, Nease Corporation, Baker-Hughes, ConocoPhillips, Novus, and Clorox.

Jeff is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has also been recognized as the Asahi Glass Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma; received recognition for the 2006 Outstanding Ground Water Remediation Project from the National Ground Water Association, for Surbec Environmental, LLC; the Soap and Detergent Association, Distinguished Paper Award, J. Surfactants and Detergents, 2003, American Oil Chemists Society; Outstanding Paper Award Spring National AIChE Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 1996; and the Outstanding Paper Award, Summer National AIChE Meeting, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 1992. He also served as Co‑Chairman of the 65th ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium in 1991.