Hamid Arastoopour receives lifetime achievement award from AIChE

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Michael P. Galvin Board Chair | Illinois Institute Of Technology

Hamid Arastoopour receives lifetime achievement award from AIChE

Hamid Arastoopour, interim dean of Armour College of Engineering, Henry R. Linden Professor of Engineering, and director of the Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) at Illinois Institute of Technology, has been awarded the 2024 Particle Technology Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

The award citation recognizes Arastoopour as “a pioneer in the development of computational fluid dynamics-based models for fluid-particle systems for scale-up and design of energy and sustainability-related processes.” This prestigious award acknowledges his significant lifetime contributions to particle technology through scholarship, service, and enthusiasm for the field.

“My biggest achievement has been developing models that shorten the time and cost needed to take technology from lab scale to commercial scale,” says Arastoopour. He has applied this to a wide range of projects including natural gas, pharmaceutical, and energy storage processes. His recent projects with particular impact on energy and sustainability have included work on concentrated solar energy storage using packed and fluidized bed systems, capturing and converting carbon dioxide into useful products such as alcohols and polymers using electrolyzers, and clean energy systems including solar and wind power.

Arastoopour’s main focus is currently renewable energy and contributing to the pathway toward net zero and decarbonization of energy systems. He joined Illinois Tech in 1985 to establish the energy technology program at a time when coal and oil were major sources of energy. “I had a lot of passion to find the solution. It was very close to my heart, and I’ve tried to contribute as much as I can to the decarbonization path,” says Arastoopour. “I think that people of the world should think about the sustainable future and conserving this planet for the well-being of humans for years to come.”

As director of WISER, he brought many researchers working in different aspects of energy and sustainability together to create new pathways and do groundbreaking work. “It’s a good feeling to be appreciated at the national or international level in my area. It makes me feel that I’ve done something very useful and that my life’s work has benefited some people, both in creating new knowledge and educating students in this area,” says Arastoopour.

Arastoopour shares credit for the award with all his previous and current Ph.D. students, Illinois Tech faculty, staff throughout the years, including Assistant Director Margaret Murphy, Program Outreach Manager for WISER Margaret Murphy, Distinguished Professors Emeritus Dimitri Gidaspow, Darsh T. Wasan—both past winners of this award in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

AIChE has previously awarded Arastoopour several honors: Ernest W. Thiele Award (1997), Lectureship Award in Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems (1999), Donald Q. Kern Award (2001), Fluidized Processes Recognition Award (2003), Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems (2015), Sustainable Engineering Forum Research Award (2018). He became a fellow of AIChE in 2004.

Arastoopour will receive the award at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting in October where he will deliver a presentation as part of the PTF Award session.

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