Dr. Christodoulos A. Floudas, director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and the Erle Nye ’59 Chair Professor for Engineering Excellence in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, presented the 2015 P.V. Danckwerts Memorial Lecture at the 10th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE10) in Nice, France on Sept. 28. ECCE10 was held in conjunction with the 3rd European Congress of Applied Biotechnology (ECAB3) and the 5th European Process Intensification Conference (EPIC5).
His presentation, “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration: A Multi-scale Grand Challenge,” introduced a multi-scale energy systems engineering framework for addressing the grand challenge of CO2 capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) at an individual process level and at the supply chain network level. Floudas outlined how CCUS could potentially cut carbon emissions in half at an affordable price. In his delivery of the prestigious lecture, Floudas said that we “need to take a multi-scale systems viewpoint,” in order to develop an optimal solution for CCUS, both on a nationwide and regional basis.
The Danckwerts Lecture was established in 1985 to honor Professor Peter V. Danckwerts as a leading scholar in the field of chemical engineering. Floudas is a world-renowned authority in mathematical modeling and optimization of complex systems. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for teaching and research, including election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011, a SIAM Fellow in 2013, a TIAS Fellow and Eminent Scholar for 2013-14, an AIChE Fellow in 2013, a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens in 2015 and recipient of the Constantin Caratheodory Prize also in 2015. He has been repeatedly named a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher.