Boukouvala awarded IChemE’s first Junior Sargent Medal, as Institution announces annual prize winners

ICHEME’S inaugural Junior Sargent Medal has been awarded to Fani Boukouvala for her development of digital tools. She is one of 25 who have been awarded 14 medals as part of IChemE’s annual prizes programme.

Boukouvala was awarded the medal for her development of digital tools for the design and optimisation of multi-scale, complex systems using both data-driven concepts and traditional chemical engineering fundamentals. The medal recognises a major contribution by an early-career individual to research in the area of computer-aided product and process engineering. It is named after Roger Sargent, a former president of IChemE who is considered the founding father and intellectual leader of process systems engineering (PSE).

IChemE awards various medals for research. This includes the Nicklin Medal which was awarded to Hannah Leese of the University of Bath, UK for her ground-breaking work on developing technologies for early detection of disease, including sepsis and ovarian cancer.

Matt Sinnott, Simon Harrison and Paul Cleary received the Senior Moulton Medal for their paper A particle-based modelling approach to food processing operations which was published in IChemE’s Food and Bioproducts Processing journal. Christopher Quarton and Sheila Samsatli were awarded the Junior Moulton Medal for their paper How to incentivise hydrogen energy technologies for net zero: Whole-system value chain optimisation of policy scenarios, as published in IChemE’s Sustainable Production and Consumption journal.

Jarka Glassey of Newcastle University, UK was awarded two medals: the Morton Medal for her longstanding activities on the international stage in disseminating best practice and policy in chemical engineering education; and the Trustees Medal for her exceptional service in shaping and setting up IChemE’s Learned Society Committee.

IChemE awards a number of prizes to those who have made longstanding contributions to the Institution or profession. Tony Fishwick was awarded the Greene Medal for his sustained contribution as an author and editorial panel member for IChemE’s Loss Prevention Bulletin. Last year the publication, which focuses on learning lessons from safety incidents to prevent repeats, was made free for all members to access: https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/loss-prevention-bulletin.

The Ambassador Prize was awarded to Yasmin Ali for her outreach activities promoting the profession both inside and outside the community. This includes her long-running series published in The Chemical Engineer in which she interviews fellow chemical engineers about the career choices they’ve made.

The Davidson Medal was awarded to Paul Witt for his long-term commitment to the development of engineers, including his extensive track record of mentoring within his own employer Dow Chemical.

Marc Reid won the Hanson Medal, which is awarded for the best article published in The Chemical Engineer magazine each year. In his article All the Dominoes Fall, Reid recounted the story of his father’s post-traumatic stress after surviving the Piper Alpha tragedy, and issued a call for engineers to consider the long-term moral implications of process accidents. The judges recommended that the article be shared more widely and be used by lecturers to teach their students. The article has been made free for everyone to access and is available to read here.  

Alexandra Meldrum, IChemE Vice President Learned Society and Chair of the Medals and Prizes Committee, said: “Our medals programme recognises the outstanding achievement of chemical engineers and the great work that IChemE members carry out through volunteer roles. A new initiative this year is that the judging criteria consider sustainability, impact and alignment with progress toward a net-zero economy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our winners are great leaders and role models in the chemical engineering profession. Congratulations to all the winners.”

The full list of medal winners is available here.

The medal winners will be awarded their prizes during webinars taking place throughout the year and these will be listed here.