In March, the The Fuels & Petrochemicals Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) named an award after Dr. M. Nazmul Karim, holder of the T. Michael O'Connor Chair II and head of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. The award in Process Control and Automation carries a $500 honorarium and will be presented annually for the next five years.
The first winners of the Professor M. Nazmul Karim Award in Process Control and Automation were announced at the 2018 AIChE Spring Meeting in May. Winners were Shashi Mistry, Craig Mangan, Dian Wang and Nate Peters from Suncor Energy; and Perry Nordh and John Escarcega from Honeywell Process Solutions for their paper “Increase Profitability with Global Optimization.”
Using an established rubric, papers were judged according to how the work advances the science and/or practice of advanced controls for the fuels and petrochemicals industries while also considering presentation/paper qualities such as technical and logical validity, innovation impact and writing/presentation clarity.
Karim has been the head of the of chemical engineering department since 2012. He has more than 30 years of experience in advanced process control research. His research interests are in model based control, nonlinear control, data-based control and optimization, and bioprocess analysis and control. According to his Google Scholar profile, Karim has authored more than 250 refereed publications and has made over 400 technical invited and contributed presentations in national and international conferences. He is the co-author of the textbook, Chemical and Bioprocess Control, which is used in over 50 universities worldwide. He has graduated more than 25 doctoral students, and is an AIChE fellow.
Pictured from right: Bill Rooney, Honeywell; Dr. Kirtan Trivedi, ExxonMobil; Shashi Mistry, Suncor Energy; Dr. M. Nazmul Karim, Texas A&M; and Perry Nordh, Honeywell.