Prof. R. Kumar Award for Innovative Modelling in Chemical Engineering – 2024

The Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is delighted to announce the recipient of the inaugural Prof. R. Kumar Award for Innovative Modelling in Chemical Engineering – 2024: Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee and team from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

This prestigious award has been established to honor the legacy of Padma Bhushan Prof. R. Kumar, an eminent chemical engineer and visionary leader whose exemplary contributions to the field of chemical engineering have brought international acclaim to IISc’s Department of Chemical Engineering. Prof. R. Kumar’s pioneering work in innovative modeling has left a lasting impact, inspiring future generations of engineers and researchers.

Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee’s team has made significant advances in developing microkinetic models that are likely to play an important role in catalyst development. The award winning work addresses a key limitation of previous mean field models by incorporating descriptors of the local chemical environment in the species balance equation. In particular, the team has pioneered the use of reverse Monte Carlo techniques as a powerful method to estimate the short-order parameter. This represents an important breakthrough, enabling the use of microkinetic models for realistic descriptions of catalysts and materials for energy applications.

Congratulations to Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee and team!