IChemE Immediate Past President wins prestigious EFCE Jacques Villermaux Medal
3rd July 2023
David Bogle, Immediate Past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at University College London (UCL), UK, is the laureate of the Jacques Villermaux Medal, awarded by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE).
David has been conferred the medal in recognition of his outstanding achievements within the remit of EFCE’s science policy, in particular in his role as EFCE’s Scientific Vice-President from 2018 to 2021. This includes his commitment to chemical engineering education and training, especially the development and publication of a report on The European Chemical Engineering Skills Pipeline.
The project sought to understand the health of chemical engineering education across Europe by analysing the number of students and teaching staff in chemical engineering across a broad range of European countries. The data showed trends and the great variation between European countries in the number of students, student/staff ratio, the number of graduates per 100,000 population, and the number of graduates relative to the local chemical industry workforce. Particularly useful was the data on the average age of staff, highlighting a lack of investment in new academic staff in some countries.
Furthermore, the award acknowledges his research in the fields of process systems engineering and systems biology, and his services to the related EFCE Working Party on computer-aided process engineering (CAPE) and the new Section on Chemical Engineering as Applied to Medicine. David developed new methodologies in the design of very large complex systems, developing controllable systems, in finding globally optimal solutions, and in identifying and exploring model sensitivities.
David is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Pro-Vice-Provost of the Doctoral School at UCL, where his role is to develop strategy for doctoral education and early career research staff, to provide training and support for researchers beyond their disciplinary boundaries, and to oversee the standards and regulations of research degree qualifications. He is the chair of the League of European Research Universities Doctoral Studies Policy Group. As well as being the Immediate Past President of IChemE, David is also Deputy Director of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering (a joint Centre with Imperial College London) and a member of the Board of SusChem, the European Platform for Sustainable Chemistry.
David said:
“It is a huge honour to be awarded this medal. I met Professor Villermaux briefly a couple of times. He made a big impression!”
The Jacques Villermaux Medal is presented every four years in recognition of Professor Jacques Villermaux, Membre de l’Institut Universitaire de France, 1935-1997, Pioneer in Chemical Process Engineering and EFCE’s first Scientific Vice-President (1996-1998).
The medal recognises achievements by a scientist within the context of the Federation’s science policy, working parties, conference programme or other related activities.
The medal will be presented on 18 September 2023 during the opening of the 14th European Congress of Chemical Engineering which will be held in Berlin, Germany, from 17-21 September 2023 David has been invited to give a plenary lecture on Thursday 21 September 2023.
Links
European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE)
Contact
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.
About 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.
About EFCE
Founded in 1953, The European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) is a non-profit-making association, whose object is to promote co-operation in Europe between non-profit-making professional scientific and technical societies in 30 countries for the general advancement of chemical engineering and as a means of furthering the development of chemical engineering.