Milorad Dudukovic

Research

The main drive of Milorad (Mike) Dudukovic's research remains advancing the frontiers of reaction engineering and effective use of reaction engineering methodology, including tracer methods, in multiphase systems in scale-up of bench scale information to new environmentally clean processes for production of fuels, materials and chemicals. Unique features of his research involve use of radioisotopes to monitor and map various multiphase flows and enable validation of advanced models and theories in this complex field. He is working on establishing a broad novel multiscale process engineering program in cooperation with industry.

Biography

In 1974, Professor Dudukovic joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) as an associate professor. He developed the Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratory (CREL) as a unique and effective interface for transfer of academic reaction engineering to industrial practice. CREL activities are focused on two broad areas: development of improved, fundamentally based models for multiphase reaction systems with experimental verification; and extension of reaction engineering methodology to new environmentally benign processes in production of new fuels and materials. Over two dozen global companies have been associated with CREL.

For advancing the fundamental understanding of multiphase reaction engineering systems professor Dudukovic received three major awards. In 1994 he was the recipient of the AIChE R. H. Wilhelm award in reaction engineering. In 1999 he won the Council for Chemical Research Malcolm E. Pruitt Award for "outstanding contributions to the progress of chemistry and chemical engineering by promotion of mutually beneficial interactions among universities, the chemical industry and government." In 2009 he was the winner of the E V Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry for “developing practical new methods to quantify multiscale kinetic-transport interactions and new models and experimental tools to study multiphase reactor systems”. In addition to his ground-breaking technical achievements and other awards he is especially proud to have won the “engineering professor of the year” designation five times at Washington University. The University conferred the 1994 Founders’ Day Award on Dudukovic in recognition of his teaching and research. In 2000, Professor Dudukovic was the recipient of the IIT Alumni Professional Achievement Award. And in 2001, he was elected Fellow of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences. A special tribute to his accomplishments is the Special Issue (Two Part Festschrift) of I&EC Research Journal published in 2005 in honor of his 60th birthday and his pioneering work in multiphase reaction engineering. This issue (I&ECR 44(14), 4841-5410; 44(16),5869-6522 consists of 122 contributed papers from colleagues around the world.

Professor Dudukovic has over 350 publications in refereed journals and has always been professionally active. Early in his career he wrote AIChE instructional modules, and over the years organized over 50 sessions at AIChE annual meetings, participated as program committee member for Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division and serve as director and co-chairman of the division. He also organized interdisciplinary conferences for ECI (Engineering international Conferences) and served as local St. Louis Chapter AIChE Director from 1986 to 1989. Currently, Professor Dudukovic is the past-president of ISCRE, inc., chairman of the AIChE CRE division and associate editor of I&EC Research.