Curtin Sarawak senior lecturer receives distinguished speaker award from Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers

Miri – 18 February 2013 – Dr. Ujjal Kumar Ghosh, a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering and Science, Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak), has been honoured with a Chemcon Distinguished Speaker (CDS) Award by the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE).

Dr. Ujjal received the award at the recent 65th annual Chemical Engineering Congress (Chemcon) held at the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar Campus in Jalandhar, Punjab, India.

The prestigious CDS Award is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of chemical engineering either in academia or in industry.

Dr. Ujjal’s award was in recognition of his contribution to research in greenhouse gas capture and membrane-based separation processes for wastewater treatment. He delivered a lecture on the subject during the congress.

Other CDS award recipients for 2012 included Professor Vishnu Pareek, Head of the Chemical Engineering Department, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; Professor Moses Tade, Chairman,  Institution of Chemical Engineers, Australia and Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Curtin University; Professor Shrish Patil, Chair, Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA; Professor Subramanian Ramakrishnan, Florida A&M University, USA; Professor Donald Roper, University of Arkansas, USA; Professor Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue University, USA; Professor Rajendra Gupta, University of Alberta, Canada; Professor S.B. Jonnalagadda, Head, School of Chemistry, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa; Professor T. Kumar, Director, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India; Dr. S. K. Pandey, Director, National Institute of Technology, Puducherry, India; Professor B. Pitchumani, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India; and Professor Masoud Soroush, Drexel University, USA.

In congratulating Dr. Ujjal on his award, Curtin Sarawak Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Professor Ian Kerr said his achievement proved that Curtin Sarawak’s academics are on a par with those of the world’s best universities.

“The recognition given to Dr. Ujjal, and to Curtin Sarawak, is very significant indeed. Such recognition give us the added impetus to take our research to greater heights and to truly world-class standards,” Professor Kerr added.

Dr. Ujjal graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India and worked with the University of Melbourne, Australia before joining Curtin Sarawak in 2010.

His research interests include greenhouse gas capture, wastewater treatment using membrane separation and biosorption, biomass conversion, modelling and simulation, and polymer membrane development. He has published his research findings in high impact research journals and has been invited to share his research in scientific conferences in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India.

Last year, he secured research funding from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) under its Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) for research into carbon dioxide capture. He also received funding from the Curtin Sarawak Research Institute (CSRI) for a project on the production of hydrogen.

Dr. Ujjal is presently collaborating with a University of Malaya lecturer on a High Impact Research project worth more than RM2 million funded by University of Malaya and MoHE, in addition to a research collaboration with a professor from the University of Shijiazhuang, China.

At Curtin Sarawak, Dr. Ujjal divides his time between his research and teaching chemical reaction engineering and advanced separation processes to engineering students. Previously, he also taught process heat transfer, petroleum processing, and advanced particle processing.

Dr. Ujjal can be contacted at ujjal@curtin.edu.my. For more information on Curtin Sarawak, visit its website at www.curtin.edu.my. You can also like it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CurtinUniversitySarawakMalaysia or follow it on Twitter at twitter.com/curtinsarawak.

Award-winner Dr. Ujjal Kumar Ghosh.

The Chemcon Distinguished Speaker (CDS) Award won by Dr. Ujjal.