Symone Alexander

Dr. Symone Alexander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University and founder of the company Shellulose, which converts pecan shells into valuable biomaterials for biomedical and agricultural applications. Her research uses fundamental engineering principles to better understand protein and polysaccharide assemblies and improve their recovery from food and agricultural waste. In doing so, her work will reduce the food waste in landfills and generate new, bio-based materials.

She has built several collaborations with local orchards, industrial partners, and community leaders and is passionate about learning from lived experiences to improve education and advance technology. She is a proud alumna of Howard University Department of Chemical Engineering and earned her Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to her role at Auburn University, she was an Eckert Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and adjunct faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Morehouse College.

Dr. Alexander is a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a 2025 Alabama Manufacturing Labs award, 2024 Graduate Mentor Award from the Auburn University Graduate School, 2023 AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship, selection as a 2020 Emerging Leader by Georgia Tech Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, and being selected as a 2018 Rising Star in Chemical Engineering by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).