Raymond Farinato

Raymond Farinato joined the Earth and Environmental Engineering (EEE) department as a Professor of Professional Practice in July 2020. He brings a practical sense of how to translate fundamental science and engineering principles into industrial-scale technologies. He believes that if technical advances are going to benefit society, then they must be made to work at this scale.

Along with other EEE colleagues, Farinato is a founding member of the Sustainable Mineral Resource Management program within the department. Research is directed at developing the next generation of mineral processing methods from a “mines of the future” perspective. His experience with surface and interfacial science and polymer physical chemistry will be essential in this effort.

Farinato received a BS in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1971) and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst (1976). He was a postdoctoral researcher in biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, and consulted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on radiation damage to DNA. He spent one year as a Senior Engineer at the Nearshore Environment Research Center in Tokyo, Japan, before committing the next 39 years to working in industry (American Cyanamid, Cytec Industries, Kemira, Solvay).

Throughout his industrial career, he worked predominantly in water-soluble polymers, surface and colloid chemistry, and adhesion science, with an emphasis on applications in the water treatment, waste management, oil and gas, and mineral processing industries. He has published over 100 publications, including peer-reviewed articles, patents, and books (2).

Farinato is also a founding member of the International Symposia on Polyelectrolytes. He was an adjunct professor in EEE since 2005, co-teaching a graduate-level course on Advanced Surface & Colloid Chemistry. Since 2020, he has developed several new courses in the field of earth resources development, teaches them full-time, and conducts research sponsored by several mining companies and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Research Areas

• Energy, Mineral, and Materials
• Environmental Separation Science and Technology
• Particle Technology for Environmental Applications
• Sustainable Production of Earth Mineral and Metal Resources
• Water Chemistry
• Sustainable Materials
• Sustainable Resource Recovery (Sustainable Mining)
• Sustainable Water
• Surface & Colloid Chemistry
• Interfacial Engineering