The University of Houston Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering will be hosting the annual Neal R. Amundson Lectures on Friday, February 1 from 1:30-5 p.m. in L2-D2, the engineering lecture hall. Drs. Haren S. Gandhi, Ford Technical Fellow at Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory, and Michael Economides, petroleum engineering consultant and adjunct professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UH, will be presenting lectures on energy and the environment during this year's event.
With worldwide expertise in the field of automotive admissions control, Gandhi will be speaking on the topic of diesel emissions and sustanable energy in transportation. He is the recipient of the President's National Medal of Technology for research, development and commercialization of automotive exhaust catalyst technology and a member of the National Academy of Engineers. He is also a five-time Ford Technical Fellow. Appointed an international expert by the United Nations and the Government of India, he has been involved in a joint project with the Automotive Research Institute of India to reduce emissions from Indian vehicles, thereby promoting environmental protection. He has published more than 80 technical papers worldwide and authored more than 50 U.S. Patents.
Economides will be lecturing on energy geopolitics. In addition to his adjunct appointment at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, he is a managing partner of a petroleum engineering consulting firm and the editor-in-chief of the Energy Tribune. He has authored or co-authored 14 professional textbooks and books, including “The Color Of Oil” and over 200 journal papers and articles. His interests include petroleum production and management, a particular emphasis on natural gas, natural gas transportation, LNG, CNG and processing, advances in process design of very complex operations, economics and geopolitics.
The Amundson Lectures are held annually in recognition of Neal R. Amundson, Cullen Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Mathematics at UH. He is widely regarded as the most prominent chemical engineering educator in the United States. His pioneering research has impacted the areas of modeling and analysis of chemical reactors, separation systems, polymerization and coal combustion. He has had a profound, pioneering impact on the education of chemical engineers, changing the teaching of the field from a qualitative, descriptive approach to precise scientific methodologies. He has long been an intellectual leader of the Chemical Engineering community, and he chaird the NRC committee that wrote the report on "Frontiers in Chemical Engineering."