Prof. Roger W. H. Sargent
The Symposium is dedicated to Prof. Roger W. H. Sargent,
first CAPE–WP Long Term Achievement Award - 2004
Name: Prof. Roger William Herbert Sargent
Present Position: Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College, U.K.
Short Description of the contributions and achievements
Prof. R. W. H. Sargent was born in 1926 at Bedford, England. He got his B.Sc in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College in 1947 and received his PhD from the same University in 1954. He became Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College in 1962 and obtained the D.Sc in Engineering in 1977. As an eminent member of Imperial College’s faculty and researcher, he was appointed as Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology in 1975, position that he occupied till 1988. In 1989 he distinguished himself as the director of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering, where since then he has been transmitting to a large number of researchers, his wide knowledge in process systems engineering, enlarging his prestigious and notorious contributions to the area. His research interests are mainly in computing techniques for mathematical modelling , process design, control and in the development and analysis of numerical methods. In addition to Imperial College activities, Prof. Sargent distinguished himself as an active member of several national and international corporations namely the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which he joined in 1960 and where he became a president in 1973, and also the Science Research Council, the Council of Engineering Institutions, the European Federation of Chemical Engineering, the Ministry of Technology, the Department of Trade and Industry, the University Grants Committee, the University Funding Council, the British Council and the British-French Mixed Cultural Commission, amongst others, where he acted as a member of several boards and committees. His research and academic contributions have been recognized through a series of prestigious honours, including Founder Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1976), Honorary Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute(1977), Silver Medal of the “Ville de Paris”(1986), Doctor honoris causa of the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (1987) and of the University of Liège (1995), Richard W. Wilhelm Lectureship of University of Princeton (1994), Distinguished Research Lectureship in Chemical Engineering of Carnegie Mellon University (1996) and the Nordic Process Control Award (2003). Prof. RWH Sargent along his long and rich career as a scholar, gave more than fifty invited lectures and published over a hundred papers and while creating a school in process systems engineering where more than fifty PhD students have been involved. Prof. RWH Sargent retired in 1992 and became an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College. In 1993, he was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering in the U.S. in recognition of the excellence he has achieved in the field of Chemical Engineering and with the election citation “for leadership in the process systems engineering area”.
Long Term Achievement CAPE Award.
Professor RWH Sargent is widely regarded as the "father" of Process Systems Engineering (PSE). Through his academic and research activities Prof. Sargent built up an important school of PSE that is now widely spread all over the world. His contributions to the area are known worldwide and considered important pillars to the PSE area adding up to a collection of outstanding achievements over the last fifty years. It is only when we learn of those whose academic origins can be traced back to Prof. Sargent, do we realize the full contribution he has already made, not only through his own work, but by instilling his enthusiasm for excellence into those who later have taken up the challenge. The interests of this group are reflections of Prof. Sargent’s focus on process modelling, simulation, optimisation and control, a field, which is now called PSE. Prof. Sargents's vision, leadership and guidance has led the establishment of PSE as the development of systematic techniques for process modelling, design and control For his leadership and lasting contribution to the establishment of the process systems engineering area and his relentless commitment to the training and enlightenment of successive generations of researchers, the CAPE Working Party had decided unanimously to attribute to Prof. RWH Sargent the First Long Term Achievement CAPE Award. This award will be presented at the next ESCAPE meeting (ESCAPE'14) that will be held in Lisbon from 16th to 19th of May 2004.