America
International Engineering Congress confers Lifetime Achievement Award to Prof. Somasundaran
Professor P. Somasundaran was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at an International Engineering Congress at its Banquet in Quebec City in Canada on September 12. Attended by about 1500 attendees, the award presented by Prof. James Finch, Chairman of the International Engineering Congress and its president Dr Cyril O'Connor.
Dr. Somasundaran
is currently the La von Duddleson Krumb Professor, Director of Langmuir
Center for Colloids & Interfaces, and Director of the National Science
Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center at Columbia
University Author of 15 books and 700 scientific publications, Somasundaran is
a 1985 inductee of the National Academy of Engineering, the highest
professional distinction that can be conferred to an engineer at that time, and
later to the Chinese National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National
Academy of Engineering, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Balkan
Academy of Mineral Technology Sciences. More recently he was the sole
Foreign Fellow elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2010. His list of
professional awards include SME Antoine M. Gaudin Award, Mill Man of
Distinction Award), AIME Publication Board Award, Robert H. Richards
Award, Arthur F. Taggart Award best paper award, Distinguished
Achievement in Engineering" award from AINA, Distinguished Alumnus (1989
sole award)from the Indian Institute of Science, Engineering Foundation's Aplan
award , AIME Mineral Industry Education Award , MEANA Engineer of
the Year Award , Fellowship of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers .
In addition, he was
awarded the "Ellis Island Medal of Honor" in 1990. In March 2010, the
President of India awarded him the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian
honors. He was appointed to the EPA Board of Scientific Councilors in 2014 and
chairman of its Chemical Safety and Sustainability committee as well as
Hazardous risk committee. More recently he was awarded the National Science
Foundation Alex Schwarzkopf award for Technical innovation and the Columbia
university “World-class Scholarly Achievement award†from Raj Center of School
of International and public affairs. He has worked on many problems in
collaboration with Indian scientists at IISc, IIT, TCS/TRDC, NCL etc. He
has been serving in the Board of the “Volunteers in Service to Education in Indiaâ€
to assist needy students.
photo: Prof.
Somasundaran (in the center) receiving Life Time Achievement Award from the Chairman of the International
Engineering Congress Prof. James Finch (in the left) and the Congress
President Dr Cyril O'Connor.