Dr. Arthur J. Ragauskas, University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory (UT-ORNL) Governor’s Chair in Biorefinng, Oak Ridge, Tenn., USA, has been awarded the AICHE Program Committee’s 2017 Professional Achievement Award. The award is for outstanding professional achievement in advancing green process engineering and distinguished contributions as an educator. 

 

 

Dr. Ragauskas held the first Fulbright Chair in Alternative Energy and is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Wood Science, and TAPPI. In 2014, he assumed a Governor’s Chair for Biorefining based in University of Tennessee’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with a complementary appointment in the UT Institute of Agriculture’s Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, and serves in the US Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate, Biosciences Division, at ORNL. 

Dr. Ragauskas’ research program is directed at understanding and exploiting innovative sustainable bioresources. This multifaceted program is targeted to develop new and improved applications for nature’s premiere renewable biopolymers for biofuels, biopower, and bio-based materials and chemicals. His research program has been sponsored by NSF, DARPA, DOD, USDA, DOE, GA Traditional Industry Program, a consortium of industry partners, and several fellowship programs. His Fulbright sponsored activities at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, were focused on the forest biorefinery and new biofuel conversion technologies for lignocellulosics. 

Currently, Dr. Ragauskas manages a research group of graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows, a research scientist, and visiting scientists. He is the recipient of the 2014 TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award and the ACS Affordable Green Chemistry award and his students have won several awards, including the ACS graduate research award.