Erdogan Kiran named Alexander F. Giacco Professor of Chemical Engineering
Erdogan Kiran, professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Alexander F. Giacco Professor of Chemical Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The professorship is funded through the Alexander F. Giacco Endowed Presidential Chair Fund, which was initiated by a donation from Hercules Inc. to honor the many contributions to business and education by the former president of Hercules, a 1942 alumnus of Virginia Tech’s Department of Chemical Engineering, the rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors from 1984-87, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Recipients are selected on the basis of teaching and research excellence and hold the professorship for a period of five years.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2000, Kiran is an internationally recognized leader in the area of supercritical fluids and their chemical engineering applications in polymer modification and processing. A supercritical fluid has unique properties for a wide range of applications in coffee decaffeination, food and polymer processing, environmental control, and medicine.
Kiran is the founder and the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Supercritical Fluids. The journal, which he established in 1988, has helped the field of supercritical fluids evolve and become recognized as a vibrant discipline.
He is also the editor of the Elsevier book series on supercritical fluid science and technology, which aims at developing pedagogical monographs that can be used as teaching tools. He has edited 12 books and published 17 book chapters, more than 120 journal articles, and more than 50 articles in conference proceedings. He has been a mentor to 10 postdoctoral research associates, 15 Ph.D. and 20 master’s students, and 38 undergraduate research students.
Kiran received his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.
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