Nilay Shah wins RAEng’s President’s Medal

NILAY SHAH, a chemical processing and sustainability expert and Fellow of IChemE, has been named the winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s President’s Medal.

The medal recognises Shah’s enormous contribution to the academy’s work which has included advising government on energy and sustainability through the National Engineering Policy Centre to promoting the academy’s campaign to increase the diversity of its fellows.  

Sir John Lazar, president of RAEng, said: “As chair of the membership committee, [Nilay Shah] was instrumental in setting up the Fellowship Fit for the Future campaign, which set an aspiration that at least half of all candidates elected to the academy each year would be from underrepresented groups in engineering.

“In fact, the 2024 cohort of new fellows surpassed this aim with 68% meeting the criteria, the most successful year in the academy’s history. This simply could not have been achieved without Nilay’s hard work, dedication and effective leadership.”

Shah has studied and worked at Imperial College London for almost 40 years. His research has included modelling, simulating and optimising chemical and energy processes from the molecular level up to simulating entire chemical plants and supply chains.

In 1997, he and four colleagues set up Process Systems Enterprise (PSE) to spinout the gPROMS modelling software they had developed at Imperial. The company expanded to employ 160 people, providing advanced process models for improving process design and operation across manufacturing sectors, before being acquired by Siemens in 2019.

Shah, who was previously head of the chemical engineering department at Imperial, has been appointed one of four directors from engineering, science, business and health to launch a new school focussed on sustainability at the university.

Shah said: “I’m excited to be taking up my new role as a co-director of the Convergence Science School of Sustainability where we aim to tackle complex problems such as the energy transition, stewardship of resources and ecosystems, and designing interventions to reduce pollution.”

Among his roles for IChemE, Shah has chaired IChemE’s Publications Medal Committee and volunteered as an Accredited Company Training Scheme mentor.

Shah will be awarded the President’s Medal at a ceremony held in London on 8 July.