Orlando Rojas is recipient of the Anselme Payen Award, the highest honor in the area of Cellulose and Renewable Materials. He is elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society and Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He is PI of the CERES Materials Bioeconomy Flagship, a Finnish National Program between Aalto and VTT. He is recipient of an ERC Advanced Research Grant by the EU Research Commission (2018-2022). In 2015 he was recognized with the Tappi Nanotechnology Award. He holds double affiliation with the Department of Applied Physics in Aalto University and is adjunct professor with the Departments Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Forest Biomaterials of North Carolina State University, USA. He leads Aalto's Materials Platform, an innovative think-tank organization that catalyzes interdisciplinary research in the area.

He is co-PI of the Academy of Finland's Center of Excellence in Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials Research, HYBER (2014-2019). HYBER combines groups working on molecular self-assembly, genetic engineering of proteins, biotechnical production of engineered biomolecules, and plant cell wall materials.

Nanomaterials, colloids and surfaces form the basis of his multidisciplinary approach to understanding the fundamental principles involved in design, manufacture and performance of biobased systems. His BiCMat group strives to learn the science and engineering of processes involving biopolymers from plants and animals and the development of advanced materials from renewable resources. The combination of expertise in his group enables control and design of self-assembly and structural hierarchies in multicomponent hybrid materials, upward from the molecular and colloidal levels. Multiphase systems are at the core of his research.

Academic Appointments

2012- Professor of Biobased Materials, Aalto University

2012- Adjunct Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NC State

2008- Adjunct Professor of Fiber and Polymer Science, College of Textiles, NC State

2004- 2014 Professor of Forest Biomaterials, College Natural Resources, NC State

2001-2003 Senior Research Scientist of the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

1998-2001 Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela

2000-2001 Adjunct Professor, Pulp and Paper Science, Universitè du Quèbec, Canada

1996-1997 Visiting Scientist, Institute for Surface Chemistry, Stockholm, Sweden

Degrees

• Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Auburn University, 1998
• M.S. Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela), 1993
• Dipl. Paper Engineering, Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain)
• B.S. Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela)

Scholarly activity (updated Feb. 2018)

• Publications=700 (including 300 peer-reviewed journal artciels)
• Invited Seminars and Talks Worldwide=260
• Short Courses to university and industry=45
• h-index=53 (GS with 12806 citations), 43 (WoS with 8175 citations)