Management Team

Professor Claire S. Adjiman, Sargent Centre Director

Professor Claire S. Adjiman is the Director of the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering. She obtained MEng in Chemical Engineering (Imperial College London) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (Princeton University). She has received many awards including:  Fellow  of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Chartered Engineer, EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2012-2017), Henry E. Armstrong Memorial Lecture of the Society of Chemical Industry (2011), Philip Leverhulme Trust Prize for Engineering (2009), Research Excellence Award for Molecular Systems Engineering team, Imperial College (2009), Rector’s Excellence Award, Imperial College (2007), Royal Academy of Engineering ICI Fellowship (1998-20 03) and Porter Ogden Ja cobus Honorific Fellowship, Princeton University in 1997. Professor Adjiman’s research interests are on Systematic methodologies for integrated molecular and process design for reactive processes: development of mo delling and optimisation tools and applications (e.g. solv ent design for re actions or CO2 capture, risk ma nagement). Model-based assessment of design of energy conversion systems including solid oxide fuel cells. Development of property prediction techniques integrating different scales of modelling (from quantum mechanics to advanced equations of state).

Professor Benoît Chachuat is a Professor of Process Systems Engineering

Professor Benoît Chachuat is a Professor of Process Systems Engineering. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University, ON, Canada (2008-2010). Dr Chachuat obtained MEng in Environmental Engineering (with Distinction - ENGEES, Strasbourg, France), MSc in Engineering Science (with Distinction - Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (with Distinction - INPL, Nancy, France). In 2013 he was awarded Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing, Computers & Chemical Engineering, Automatica Outstanding Reviewer Award (2007), Lavoisier Postdoctoral Fellowship ( 2003–2004) and Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, INPL in 2002. His research interests are: Environmental systems engineering, especially design and operation of wastewater treatment and recovery plants; integrated design and operation of miroalgae photobioreactors, Systematic methodologies for design and operation under uncertainty, Real-time optimization of dynamic and large-scale processes and Development of new methods and tools for deterministic global optimization.

 Dr Antonio Del Rio Chanona is an Assistant Professor at Imperial College London and Director for Education and Continuous Learning at the Sargent Centre

Dr Antonio Del Rio Chanona is a Director for Education and Continuous Learning at the Sargent Centre. 

Antonio is recognised for his work on machine learning applied to chemical and process systems engineering. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was awarded the Danckwerts-Pergamon Prize for the best PhD thesis of his year at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge (2017).

He was awarded the Nicklin Medal by The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) “for his work on process systems engineering, industrialisation of bioprocesses, and adoption of intelligent and autonomous learning algorithms to chemical engineering” (2020). He also received the EPSRC fellowship (2017-2020) and the Sir William Wakeham award by the Chemical Engineering Department, Imperial College London for outstanding research achievements (2019).

Antonio is Associate Editor of the Data-Centric Engineering Journal from Cambridge University Press (2020 - present), has served as subject chair on real-time optimisation and intelligent systems at several conferences by the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) (2018-2022) and has been selected by the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) to represent the UK as the next generation of leading researchers on Online Optimization (2016), amongst other awards.

Dr Martyn MacPherson

Dr Martyn MacPherson has extensive experience in all aspects of technology innovation, through his work at BP and more recently through his work at Stella EOC, a technology investment bank. Martyn has worked closely with technology-based businesses in a wide range of industries. 

Professor Nilay Shah

Professor Nilay Shah is the former Sargent Centre Director.

Professor Nilay Shah is the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and former Sargent Centre Director. He is also Co-Director of the Urban Energy Systems project at Imperial, Co-Director of the Porter Institute for Bioenergy, and leader of the Zero-Carbon Production Systems theme of Climate-KIC (www.climate-kic.org). He has co-authored over 100 technical papers on energy systems modelling and engineering, bio-energy systems, hydrogen infrastructures, supply chain modelling, process scheduling and optimisation, design of batch and biochemical processes, and plant safety and risk assessment. He has developed an optimisation-based design methodology for a variety of energy systems exhibiting strong spatial and temporal aspects. Professor Shah  is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering  and has received several awards including the IChemE Junior Moulton Medal (1996), an RAEng/ICI Engineering Fellowship (1997-2001), the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize (2005), the Imperial College Rector’s Award for Research Excellence (2006), RAEng MacRobert Award (2007) and Imperial College Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2009).

Jana Pierron, Centre Manager

Jana Pierron

Jana Pierron has joined the Sargent Centre in 2021 and as a Centre manager is responsible for strategic planning, leading the administration of the Centre, developing operational processes as well as managing the Centre's external relations initiatives.