New Cain Chair Professor in Chemical Engineering
October 2, 2009
Dr. Krishnaswamy Nandakumar has been named the second Gordon A. and Mary Cain Chair in Chemical Engineering. Before arriving at LSU in August 2009, he served for two years as the GASCO Chair Professor in Chemical Engineering at the Petroleum Institute (PI) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Prior to that assignment, Nandakumar had devoted more than 20 years to the University of Alberta's Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering. During this time he was elected Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. In 2007 he was elected Fellow of both the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. In 2008 he was selected as a member of the World Council of Chemical Engineers.
Nandakumar has written more than 135 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has made more than 125 presentations at various conferences. Furthermore, he has been invited to give more than 25 presentations to industries, universities, and government labs around the world. His research interests include: computational fluid dynamics, CFD modeling of multiphase flows as applied to the oil industry, CFD modeling of separation processes, modeling of solid oxide fuel cells and modeling of polymer processing operations, and bifurcation phenomena.
When asked what he is looking forward to most at LSU, Nandakumar replied, "The next generation of computational models for understanding and improving the performance of large scale chemical process equipment are becoming available. Our ability to probe the detailed structure of multiphase flows using experimental techniques such as tomography is also improving. So one can argue that the time is ripe to organize an effort to undertake such studies and this is going to be my goal at LSU. Significant computational facilities, resources and expertise are available at LSU and so I feel fortunate to add a new dimension to these efforts."
Nandakumar received his BS from Madras University in India in 1973, his MS from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1975, and his PhD from Princeton University in 1979, all in Chemical Engineering. The College of Engineering welcomes his expertise to the LSU community.
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Article by Colette Burke, LSU College of Engineering,225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu
