Purdue professor elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

April 25, 2013  


Rakesh Agrawal

Rakesh Agrawal  
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University professor has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, is among the new class of members named this week.

"Dr. Agrawal has an extraordinary record of innovations, and his work has had a significant impact on manufacturing and in diverse industries," said Purdue President Mitch Daniels.

Agrawal holds 118 U.S. patents, nearly 500 non-U.S. patents and has authored 107 technical papers. In 2011 he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama. The award is the highest honor for technological achievement bestowed by the president.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Agrawal served on the National Research Council (NRC) panel that issued a report called "The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers and R&D Needs." He also has served on a national panel concerning America's energy future, and he was a member of the NRC's Board on Energy and Environmental Systems.

He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1977 and a bachelor's in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1975.

Agrawal came to Purdue in 2004 following a career in industry that included 24 years at Air Products and Chemicals Inc. in Allentown, Pa. Previously, he has focused on basic and applied research in gas separations, process development, gas liquefication processes, cryogenics and thermodynamics.

He joins 10 Purdue colleagues as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Those previously elected to membership are Leah H. Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; H. Jay Melosh, Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Physics; Ei-ichi Negishi, Nobel laureate and the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; former Purdue President France A. Córdova; Arden Bement, inaugural director of Purdue's Global Policy Research Institute; R. Graham Cooks, the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; Joseph Francisco, the William E. Moore Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry; Albert Overhauser, the Stuart Distinguished Professor of Physics; Michael Rossmann, the Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences; and Freydoon Shahidi, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.

The new class will be inducted during a ceremony Oct. 12 at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Members of the 2013 class include winners of the Nobel Prize; National Medal of Science; the Lasker Award; the Pulitzer and the Shaw prizes; the Fields Medal; MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships; the Kennedy Center Honors; and Grammy, Emmy, Academy and Tony awards.

A complete list of new members is available on the academy's website at http://www.amacad.org/news/alphalist2013.pdf 

Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu 

Source: Rakesh Agrawal, 765-494-2257, agrawalr@purdue.edu

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