Academics at Imperial have been recognised by the Institution of Chemical Engineers for their exceptional contribution to the profession.

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) medals and prizes are awarded annually to recognise excellence in chemical engineering, in both research and academia. 

This year five academics and researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Centre for Environmental Policy have been awarded prizes and medals in three categories.

Ambassador Prize

Professor Geoffrey Maitland CBE has been awarded the Ambassador Prize for his sustained impact on chemical engineering. The prize is awarded to a volunteer who has made exceptional contributions, likely within an IChemE Special Interest Group, Members Group or as an ambassador for the Institution and/or profession more widely.

Professor Maitland has been a prominent figure in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London since he joined as a lecturer in 1974. He then went on to work in industry in 1985 before returning to Imperial in 2005. He was Director of the Shell Grand Challenge on Clean Fossil Fuels and Director of the Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre. He served as President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and was recognised with a CBE in 2019 for 'services to chemical engineering following a distinguished career where he drove connections between industry and academia.'

Warner Prize

Dr Salvador Eslava has been unanimously awarded the Warner Prize which recognises an individual, normally in the early stages of their career, who has shown exceptional promise in the field of sustainable chemical process technology, nuclear technology or in making chemical engineering more accessible to a wider scientific community.

Dr Eslava joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2019 after five years as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at University of Bath. Prior to his role at the University of Bath, he was a Postdoctoral Research in the Materials Department at Imperial College London, and in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge.  He leads a group on novel synthesis approaches for (photo)electrochemical and (photo)catalytic materials, including transition metal oxides, halide perovskites, oxide perovskites, and graphene derivatives. 

Junior Moulton Medal

Dr David Danaci, Dr Mai Bui and Professor Niall Mac Dowell have been awarded the Junior Moulton Medal which, like the Senior Moulton Medal, recognises the most meritorious paper published by IChemE during the last year by an author, or co-author, who has graduated within the last ten years.

The team were awarded the medal for their contribution to the paper published in Molecular Systems Design and Engineering, ‘Exploring the limits of absorption-based CO2 capture using MOFs with PVSA – from molecular design to process economics.’

Dr Danaci is a Research Associate working on a UKCCSRC project looking at metal-organic frameworks for post-combustion and CO2 capture. His work involves synthesising, characterising, and evaluating adsorbents, as well as modelling adsorption processes.

Dr Bui is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London. She is also a member of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE) and co-leads the Clean Fossil and Bioenergy Research Group (CleanFaB) with Dr Niall Mac Dowell. She is a Future Energy Leader at the Energy Centre of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and a committee member of the SCI Energy Group. 

Professor Mac Dowell is a Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of both the IChemE and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research is focused on understanding the transition to a low carbon economy. Since 2010, he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers at the molecular, unit operation, integrated process, and system scales in this context.

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The full list of winners can be found on the IChemE website.