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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 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 recognizes Arastoopour for 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 the energy systems. 

Arastoopour joined Illinois Tech in 1985 to establish the energy technology program, championing the work at a time when coal and oil were major sources of energy. Most people weren’t ready to hear about the undesirable effects of producing too much carbon dioxide. 

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

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

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

Image: 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 at Illinois Institute of Technology