Engineering professor charts unexpected career path from thermodynamics to whiskey barrels

LAWRENCE — For nearly two decades, Chris Depcik has taught and researched the fundamentals of mechanical engineering at the University of Kansas, including thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. It’s the kind of work that underpins everything from combustion engines to traffic flow.

It also, unexpectedly, led him to whiskey maturation.

A visit to a whiskey storage facility, known as a rickhouse, in Kentucky sparked the idea. Standing among rows of aging barrels, Depcik began to see something familiar.

“I thought, hey, you know, this is just flow through a permeable membrane,” said Depcik, professor of mechanical engineering. “Obviously, it’s a lot more complex than that, but that started me thinking.”

That moment connected directly to his background in modeling catalytic converters and filtration systems and set off a new line of inquiry.

Over the next several years, that curiosity turned into something more. Depcik developed a physics-based model that predicts how spirits mature inside a barrel and founded his company, Distinct DistillAge.

He now uses his proprietary DistillAge3D Model, which integrates chemistry, physics and environmental data to simulate aging conditions in real time and help distillers better understand how spirits evolve inside the barrel. The work draws on decades of experience and a deep understanding of engineering fundamentals.

"It’s thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, which is what I’ve been focused on and really enjoyed for the past 30-something years,” Depcik said. “If you know the fundamentals, you can apply them in engineering anywhere.”

He recently brought that idea to campus by hosting a panel featuring KU alumni who work across the whiskey industry, including a master distiller, a distillery owner and a global spirits executive.

“Everybody loved it,” Depcik said. “The students were coming up later, sending me emails saying, ‘This was fantastic. We really learned a lot.’”

The response highlighted the broad range of opportunities an engineering background can create. That message is one he emphasizes to students.

“I always joke around in class that everything has always been thought of before, but there are always new ways to do it,” he said. “If you can use your degree to come up with a better way of doing something — a more efficient way, a more optimal way — then, even if it’s been done before, you could have the best product out there.”

For Depcik, Distinct DistillAge and his groundbreaking model reflect how engineering extends far beyond traditional paths and into industries students may never expect. At the center of it all is something simple: curiosity. It’s the same mindset he said he hopes students carry with them long after graduation.

“You’ve got the opportunity here at KU to become an expert in many different fields. You don’t know where your career — or your life — will take you.”