The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) medals and prizes committee is recognizing over 30 chemical engineers for their exceptional contribution to the profession in research and academia.
The winners include IChemE member, Professor John Grace, University of British Columbia, Canada, who is awarded the Geldart Medal for his significant contribution to research in particle technology. Following eight international nominations, the medals and prizes committee recognize Grace as “a unique star.” Grace is a pioneering researcher in fluidization whose work on circulating fluidized beds has been critical to the development and scale-up of fluidized bed reactors for industrial applications, including gasification and clean energy production. He was also recently awarded the Hall of Fame Award from the University of British Columbia.
For the first time ever, a joint award is given for the Junior Moulton Medal. This decision was made after judges were so impressed by both sets of contributions that it reportedly proved difficult to award the medal to just one entry. Recipients of the Junior Moulton Medal are Dr. David Danaci, Dr. Mai Bui and Dr. Niall MacDowell, Imperial College London, UK, for their paper, “Exploring the limits of absorption-based CO2 capture using MOFs with PVSA – from molecular design to process economics,” and Luke Forster, Le Yu and Dr. Carmine D’Agostino, The University of Manchester, UK, for their paper, “Tailoring morphology of hierarchical catalysts for tuning pore diffusion behaviour: a rational guideline exploiting bench-top pulsed-field gradient (PFG) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).” Both papers were published in Molecular Systems Design and Engineering 2020.
The Sharma Medal, which honors sustained and outstanding research contributions in chemical engineering across an individual’s career, is presented to IChemE Fellow, Professor Paula Mendes, University of Birmingham, UK. Mendes is also a member of the IChemE research and innovation community of practice.
The Greene Medal acknowledges long-term contributions to the progress of the Institution and is presented to IChemE Fellow, Professor Michael Cloke, in Malaysia. His contribution to IChemE spans over 30 years and his input has reportedly been integral to the core membership function. Cloke is a member of the IChemE professional formation forum and has played a key role on the judging panel for the IChemE Malaysia Awards. He is also a part of the Program SMART steering group and an active member of the palm oil processing special interest group.
The medal winners will be awarded their prizes during virtual webinars taking place throughout the year.
For the full list of IChemE 2021 medals and prize winners, visit: www.icheme.org