Excellence Award winners 2024
Dr. Francesco Destro
The Award acknowledges his excellent PhD thesis on "Digitalizing pharmaceutical development and manufacturing: advanced mathematical modeling for operation design, process monitoring and process control", completed at the University of Padova, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Massimiliano Barolo.
The Award is conferred to Francesco Destro on Monday afternoon, 3 June 2024 during the ESCAPE34 - PSE2024 conference held in Florence, Italy, on 2-6 June 2024.
Excellence Award winners 2022
Dr. aLESSANDRO dI pRETORO
The Award acknowledges his excellent PhD thesis on "Optimal Design of Flexible, Operable and Sustainable Processes under Uncertainty: Biorefinery Applications", developed during three years of joint PhD thesis programme between the Laboratoire de Génie Chimique INP- ENSIACET, Toulouse, France and Politecnico di Milano, Italy, under the co-supervisor of Professsor Ludovic Montastruc and Professor Flavio Manenti.
Dr. Ahmed Shokry Abdelaleem Taha Zied
The Award acknowledges his excellent PhD thesis on "A Contribution to Chemical Process Operation Support: New Machine Learning and Surrogate Models-Based Approaches for Process Optimization, Supervision and Control", completed at the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, under the supervision of Professor Antonia Espuna.
The Award was presented to the two winners at the 32th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE-32, which was held in Toulouse, France on 12-15 June 2022.
Sponsor 2022: Laboratoire de Génie Chimique - LGC, Toulouse, France.
About the sponsor:
Interlinking Science and Technology, the LGC participates in the latest advances in Chemical Engineering and develops experimental and theoretical research for new insights at the core of processes of transformation of matter and energy. LGC’s mission is to produce knowledge in the field of Chemical Engineering by focussing on industrial and societal constraints and issues while participating in the international competition of new knowledge creation. The Process System Eng. department aims to design interconnected equipment in a production unit. Its activity scans all the spatio-temporal scales from the molecule to the extended enterprise, including decision-making thanks to the concept of industrial engineering, the design of intensified equipment or even the integrated product-process design with molecular simulation.
Award ceremony impressions
Excellence Award winner 2020
Dr. Dinesh Krishnamoorthy
His PhD thesis on
"Novel Approaches to Online Process Optimization Under Uncertainty"
completed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) under the supervision of Professor Sigurd Skogestad was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of relevance to the CAPE terms of reference, innovation, technical quality, scientific impact including industrial relevance, and innovation.
Dinesh Krishnamoorthy obtained his B.Engg in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, his MSc in Control Systems from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, and his PhD from NTNU, Norway. Currently, he hold the position of post-doctoral Fellow at NTNU focussing on machine learning for process optimization and process control. Furthermore, in 2019 he obtained a 3-year IKTPLUSS Research Fellowship on "Intelligent use of data to build optimization tools for cyber-physical systems in the process industry".
The award lecture was presented at the 28th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE-28, which was held virtually on 28-30 August 2020.
Excellence Award winner 2018
Dr.-Ing. Mirko Skiborowski
His PhD thesis on
"Optimization-Based Methods for the Conceptual Design of Separation Processes for Azeotropic Mixtures"
completed at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, under the supervision of Professor Wolfgang Marquardt was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of relevance to the CAPE terms of reference, innovation, technical quality, scientific impact including industrial relevance, and innovation.
Mirko Skiborowski received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Computational Engineering Science his Ph.D. Process Systems Engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Currently, he leads the research group "Process Synthesis and Process Intensification" at the Laboratory of Fluid Separationsis, TU Dortmund University, Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering and is preparing his habilitation in the area of Process Synthesis and Process Intensification of Fluid Separation Processes.
The award was presented on Wednesday, 13 June 2018, on the occasion of the 28th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE-28, held in Graz, Austria, from 10 to 13 June 2018.
Excellence Award winner 2016
Dr. Michele Corbetta
His PhD thesis on
"Green Ethylene Glycol: MINLP Downstream Process Optimization and Multi-scale Simulation of Gasification Processes"
completed at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Sauro Pierucci, was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of innovation, technical quality, scientific impact including industrial relevance, dissemination of results, and relevance to CAPE.
The award was presented on 13 June 2016 on the occasion of the 26th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE'26, held in Portoroz, Slovenia, from 12 to 15 June 2016.
Excellence Award winner 2014
Dr. Laurence Tock
Her PhD thesis on
"Thermo-environomic optimisation of fuel decarbonisation alternative processes for hydrogen and power production"
completed at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the supervision of Professor François Maréchal, was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of innovation, technical quality, scientific impact including industrial relevance, dissemination of results, and relevance to CAPE.
The award was presented on 16 June 2014 on the occasion of the 24th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 24, held in Budapest, Hungary, from 15 to 18 June 2014.
Excellence Award winner 2012
Dr. José Miguel Laínez-Aguirre
His PhD thesis on
"Towards Integrated Supply Chain Management for the Enterprise Sudtainability"
completed at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, under the supervision of Professor Prof. Luis Puigjaner and Prof. Antonio Espuna, was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of innovation, technical quality, scientific impact including industrial relevance, dissemination of results, and relevance to CAPE.
José Miguel Laínez-Aguirre received his diploma in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas", El Salvador; and his Masters degree in Business Administration from the Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain. In 2010, he completed his PhD in Process Systems Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. Currently, José Miguel is a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University where his research is focused on the application of Bayesian inference to problems arising in the pharmaceutical industry.
The award was presented on 20 June 2012 on the occasion of the 22nd European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 22, which was held in London, UK, from 17 to 20 June 2012.
Excellence Award winner 2010
Dr. RAVENDRA SINGH
His PhD thesis on
"Model‐based computer‐aided framework for design of process monitoring and analysis systems"
completed at the Technical Universty of Denmark, Lyngby, under the supervision of Professor Rafiqul Gani, was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of breadth and depth of the study, number and quality of publications, innovativeness, industrial relevance, and European dimension.
Ravendra Singh received his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, and his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby. Currently, he is active as a Post Doctoral researcher in the project 'Fast Flexible Future Factory (F3 Factory)' at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering of the Technical University of Denmark. His research expertise includes process modeling and simulation, process monitoring and analysis systems, process analytical technology (PAT), quality by design, product quality monitoring & control, process dynamics and control, knowledge based system, analytical techniques, pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing, fermentation, crystallization, framework and algorithm development, and software architecture.
The award was presented on the occasion of the 20th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 20, held in Ischia, Naples, Italy, from 6 to 9 June 2010.
Excellence Award winner 2008
Dr.-Ing. Harvey Arellano-Garcia
His PhD thesis on
"Chance Constrained Optimization of Process Systems under Uncertainty "
completed at the Berlin Institute of Technology under the supervision of Professor Guenter Wozny, was selected by an international jury as the best thesis in terms of innovativeness, breadth and depth of research, high standard of publication, industrial relevance, and international dimension.
Harvey Arellano-Garcia received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in Energy and Chemical Engineering and the Dr.-Ing. degree from the Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany. Currently, he is active as a senior researcher at the Department of Process Dynamics and Operation of the Berlin Institute of Technology and leader of the Research Group Process Dynamics and Optimization. His research areas are numerical integration techniques, modelling and control of chemical and biochemical processes, process simulation, dynamic optimization, model-based control, and online optimization under uncertainty.
The award was presented on the occasion of the 18th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 18, held in Lyon, France, from 1 to 4 June 2008.
Excellence Award winner 2006
In 2006, the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) presented, for the first time, the EFCE Excellence Award in Recognition of an Outstanding PhD Thesis on CAPE - Computer Aided Process Engineering.
Dr. Marta Dueñas Díez
was selected by an international jury as this year's prize-winner of the award for her PhD thesis on
"Population balance modelling and passivity-based control of particulate processes, applied to the Silgrain® process"
for which she achieved the best evaluation results in terms of innovativeness, breadth and depth of research, high standard of publication and industrial relevance.
She completed her PhD thesis at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology-Telemark University College, under the supervision of Professor Bernt Lie.
Marta Dueñas Díez received her PhD in Engineering Cybernetics from NTNU-Telemark University College. She is currently working on applied research at the petroleum industry, as a senior researcher at StatoilHydro in Norway. Her main research areas are mathematical modelling, system theory, and optimization.
The award was presented on the occasion of the PSE'2006 & ESCAPE-16 conference, which was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, from 9 to 12 July 2006.
