IChemE Fellow awarded prestigious Chemeca Medal
20th October 2023
The most prestigious chemical engineering award in Australia and New Zealand was presented to Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Fellow Clive Davies at the Awards of Excellence ceremony during the Chemeca conference in Auckland, New Zealand, in October.
The Chemeca Medal is awarded to a prominent Australian or New Zealand chemical engineer who has made an outstanding contribution, through achievement or service, to the practice of chemical engineering in its widest sense and who continues to serve the profession. Clive was awarded the medal by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers (ANZFChE) in recognition of his contribution to chemical engineering over a five-decade career. Clive has contributed at all levels: as a researcher, an educator and extensively within the professional bodies of IChemE, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, (AIChE), Engineering NZ, and the Royal Society Te Apārangi (New Zealand).
An alumnus of Imperial College London, UK, Clive emigrated to New Zealand in 1976. Initially a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Canterbury, he moved to Industrial Research Ltd, returning to academia in 2003 when he became Professor of Particle and Process Engineering at Massey University. He was also an Associate Investigator with the Riddet Institute, New Zealand’s internationally acclaimed centre for fundamental and strategic scientific research in food.
Clive has co-chaired Chemeca, was Conference Chairman for the Asia Pacific Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies (APCSEET) in 2005 and a Technical Co-Chair for the Fluidization XVI conference. He has served on the Board of IChemE in New Zealand, and on many panels for the Royal Society Te Apārangi. In 2020 he was honoured by the AIChE’s Particle Technology Forum, who bestowed on him the PSRI Fluidization and Fluid Particle Systems Award. Clive retired in 2022.
The recipient of the award is invited to present a plenary at Chemeca, and Clive’s lecture, ‘Chemical Engineering in Action: Processes, Profits, Particles, Planes, Plants’, recounted some of the influences and experiences that shaped his professional life, including joining IChemE as a student member.
Chemeca is the annual conference for the Australian and New Zealand community of chemical and process engineers and industrial chemists, and is a key opportunity for collaboration between industry and academia, sharing knowledge, experience, ideas and insights.
IChemE Chief Executive Officer Yvonne Baker attended the conference, and said: “I was delighted to be able to congratulate Clive in person on his very well-deserved award following his decades of dedicated work across particle processing, flow measurement, and solids metering; I thoroughly enjoyed his plenary lecture. I had an immensely worthwhile visit to Chemeca, which provides an excellent platform for building new connections and strengthening existing partnerships. It was great to see academics and industry producing ideas for us all to build upon, with a fascinatingly wide variety of papers presented. I was also enthused to see early career student teams engage with interesting projects and challenges.”
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Dr Gary Bowman, Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers (ANZFChE), presents Clive Davies with the Chemeca Medal.
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For more information please contact:
Lucy Cook, Communications Manager, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534454
e: lcook@icheme.org
Ann Baylis, Communications Executive & PR Lead, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534477
e: abaylis@icheme.org
What is chemical engineering?
Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, mathematics and economics in the process of turning raw materials into everyday, and more specialist, products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Energy, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the industry sectors and products where chemical engineering plays a central role.
IChemE
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) advances chemical engineering's contribution for the benefit of society. We facilitate the development of chemical engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of around 30,000 members in more than 100 countries.
We support our members in applying their expertise and experience to make an influential contribution to solving major global challenges, and are the only organisation permitted to award Chartered Chemical Engineer status and Professional Process Safety Engineer registration.