Susan Fullerton Shirey Named Interim Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt
PITTSBURGH (August 24, 2026) ... Susan Fullerton Shirey has been named interim chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. Her appointment and promotion to full professor take effect Sept. 1, 2026.
Fullerton Shirey is the Bicentennial Board of Visitors Faculty Fellow and serves as vice chair for graduate education. She is leading an NSF-funded effort that gives graduate students greater flexibility to shape their studies around academic, industry or entrepreneurial careers. She recently completed Drexel University's 2025–2026 Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) fellowship, a yearlong program that included an institution-wide STEM education project.
“Susan's leadership experience in the department will provide valuable continuity while we search for its next chair,” said Michele V. Manuel, U. S. Steel Dean of Engineering.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the department that has been my academic home since 2015,” Fullerton Shirey said. “My first priority is to listen to our faculty, staff and students and make sure they have what they need to continue their work while the search is underway.”
Fullerton Shirey earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from Penn State and began her faculty career as a research assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. She joined Pitt in 2015 and earned tenure in 2020.
As leader of the Nanoionics and Electronics Lab, Fullerton Shirey studies how ions can control charge in semiconductors for next-generation electronics. Her research has earned an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry and an NSF CAREER Award. She received the James Pommersheim Award for Excellence in Teaching in Chemical Engineering.
Fullerton Shirey succeeds Steven R. Little, who will conclude 14 years as chair at the end of summer. “I am grateful to Steve for 14 years of leadership and for working closely with Susan as she prepares to take on the interim role,” Manuel said. During his tenure, grant proposal submissions and expenditures more than doubled, and the department added 15 faculty members. Little will take a sabbatical before returning to Pitt's faculty as Distinguished Professor and George M. and Eva M. Bevier Endowed Chair.
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