Joseph J. Helble is dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and a professor of engineering, positions he has held since 2005. During the preceding academic year, as Roger Revelle Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), he addressed technology and environmental policy issues in the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Before coming to Dartmouth, Helble was a member and then chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, with research in the areas of air pollution, CO₂ capture, aerosols, and nanoscale materials production. While there he initiated what has become a campuswide program to produce biodiesel fuel from waste vegetable oil. 

From 1987 to 1995, he was a research scientist and manager at Physical Sciences Inc. in Andover, Massachusetts, specializing in environmental and energy technology development. In 1993, he also worked at EPA headquarters in Washington, DC, as a AAAS science and policy fellow.

He is the author of over 100 publications in the areas of air pollution, aerosols, nanoscale ceramics, and air quality, and 3 US patents related to nanoscale powder production. Among other honors, he has received the inaugural environmental faculty leadership award from the University of Connecticut. 

He graduated summa cum laude in chemical engineering from Lehigh University in 1982 and in 1987 completed his PhD in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.