Over thirty chemical engineers have been recognised by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for their exceptional contribution to the profession in research and academia.
The list of 2021 prize winners has been announced by the Medals and Prizes Committee today (24 February).
The winners include IChemE member, Professor John Grace, University of British Colombia, Canada, who has been awarded the Geldart Medal for his significant contribution to research in particle technology. Following eight international nominations, the Medals and Prizes Committee recognised Professor Grace as “a unique star”. Professor Grace is a pioneering researcher in fluidisation whose work on circulating fluidised beds has been critical to the development and scale up of fluidised bed reactors for industrial applications, including gasification and clean energy production. He has also recently been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of British Colombia.
For the first time ever, a joint award has been given for the Junior Molton Medal. This decision was made after judges were so impressed by both sets of contributions that it proved difficult to award the medal to just one entry. Recipients of the Junior Morton 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 Mr Luke Forster, Mr 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 honours sustained and outstanding research contributions in chemical engineering across an individual’s career, will be presented to IChemE Fellow, Professor Paula Mendes, University of Birmingham, UK. Professor Mendes also sits on the IChemE UK Research Committee as Chair.
The Greene Medal acknowledges long-term contributions to the progress of the Institution and will be presented to IChemE Fellow, Professor Michael Cloke, in Malaysia. His contribution to IChemE spans over 30 years and his input has been integral to the core membership function. Professor 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 Programme SMART Steering Group and an active member of the Palm Oil Processing Special Interest Group.
Jarka Glassey, IChemE Vice President Learned Society and Chair of the Medals and Prizes Committee, said:
“Huge congratulations to all of the 2021 winners of the IChemE medals and prizes. It’s even more impressive to see, in these troubled times, all of these chemical and process engineers demonstrating their outstanding technical expertise and excellent contributions towards making this world a better place for this and future generations.”
The medal winners will be awarded their prizes during virtual webinars taking place throughout the year and these will be advertised on the IChemE website www.icheme.org.
