Dr. Joseph Sang-II Kwon, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded the 2020 Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) Young Investigator Grant. The KSEA Young Investigator Grant is the group’s highest recognition given to young professionals who earned a doctoral degree in science or engineering, and have been working in academia, industry or government for no more than six years.
With the grant, Kwon’s research proposal will investigate, “Multiscale Modeling of Pulp Digester for Improved Renewable Resource Efficiency.” The research goal of his proposal is to establish a multiscale model of a pulp digester – a large, pressurized cooker that transforms raw materials into pulp – to capture the evolution of both macroscopic and microscopic phenomena taking place within the digester.
In addition to the KSEA Young Investigator Grant, Kwon was named a 2020 TEES Young Faculty Fellow. Kwon’s research focuses on developing process systems engineering models and frameworks for the analysis, control and optimization of complex chemical and biological systems, especially in the field of oil and gas production. He has been a part of teams awarded grants from the Department of Energy to study novel viscosifying agents, process intensification and natural gas extraction, as well as a National Science Foundation grant to study modeling and control of hydraulic fracturing and pathogen infection pathways. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and 30 peer-reviewed conference proceedings.