Alexis Voulgaropoulos

Alexis Voulgaropoulos is a PhD student in the Chemical Engineering department and currently does research on managing waste plastics. She does research in the Tassone Group at SLAC, where she uses X-ray scattering to understand the fundamentals of plastic degradation and, subsequently, better optimize chemical recycling catalysts. Additionally, she looks at the enzymatic degradation of textile plastics to develop better solutions for upcycling textile waste. On the policy front, Alexis is the Vice Chair of the American Institute of Chemical Engineer’s (AIChE) Public Information and Information Committee, where she chemical engineering leaders within academia and industry provide guidance to AIChE members on current and future sustainability issues pertaining to chemical engineering.

Alexis has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University. Prior to joining Stanford, Alexis was a policy engineering intern in AIChE’s Washington Internships for Students of Engineering, where she crafted policy recommendations for reducing the presence of PFAS in drinking water. In her senior year, she worked on a senior design project for removal of microplastics from water. She hopes to eventually use her research to prevent future plastic waste and remediate legacy plastic waste. In her career, she hopes to set better policies to have a cleaner chemical industry with less environmental injustice.