Thursday 23 October 2014

Lifetime Achievement Award to Prof. Roe-Hoan Yoon

The IMPC Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) "recognises a lifetime of distinguished achievement and outstanding contribution to the advancement of the art, science and industrial practice of mineral processing together with participation in and contribution to the IMPC".

At last night's IMPC Gala Dinner in Santiago the LAA was awarded to Prof. Roe-Hoan Yoon, a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. He earned his B.S. degree from Seoul National University (1967) and his M.S. (1971) and Ph.D. (1977) degrees from McGill University. He worked as a Research Scientist at the Canada Center for Minerals and Energy Technology (CANMET) from 1976 to1978 and joined the faculty of Virginia Tech in 1979. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies (CAST).


Prof. Yoon with Profs. Juan Yianatos and Cyril O 'Connor

Prof Yoon with previous recipients of the LAA, Prof. Janusz Laskowski (2008),
Prof. Doug Fuerstenau (1995), and Profs. Forssberg, O'Connor and Yianatos

Early in his career, his research focused on fine particle flotation, which led to the development of the Microcell flotation columns that are widely used in industry today, and also on the electrochemistry of sulfide mineral flotation.  During the last 25 years, Prof. Yoon has been focusing on the study of hydrophobic interactions, which have led to the development of new collectors, dewatering aids, a first-principle flotation model, and new separation processes. More recently, his research group developed a new instrument for visualizing bubble-particle interactions with a nanoscale resolution, which is useful for studying both the hydrodynamic and surface forces affecting flotation. His flotation model can be used to design a flotation circuit on the basis of information on mineral liberation, flotation cell hydrodynamics, and the reagents used. These research activities have resulted in over 330 technical publications, 13 book chapters, 1 book, more than 40 plenary and keynote papers at national and international meetings, and a number of Congressional testimonies. He has advised 40 Ph.D. students, 36 M.S. students, and around 40 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scholars. To date he has more than 70 U.S. and international patents to his credit, many of which have been commercialized through license agreements. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Gaudin (2003) and Richards (2007) awards.

Prof. Yoon is a very worthy winner of this award, and I extend hearty congratulations on behalf of MEI.


2 comments:

  1. I:am very happy that Prof.Yoon got the Life Time Achievement Award-- a well deserved award to a person whose contribution is multi faceted;I had the privilege of knowing him personally ; my interactions with him,both at his place and in India, have always been very happy and stimulating. I am sure the total Mineral Engn fraternity would be very happy to note this news.
    Prof.Yoon, pl accept my personal greetings and I am sure you would continue to take the profession to greater heights.
    Rao,T.C., India

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Dr Barry,
    I have been reading your MEI blog on IMPC 2014 held at Santiago. I am quite happy to know about Prof Roe-Hoan Yoon that this time he has been bestowed with ‘Life Time Achievement Award’. His name I had mentioned earlier also, in the previous IMPC blog of 2012 in the comments box placed by you. Because, I was expecting this to him since long.
    Dr Barry It’s quite convincing to me. Prof Yoon, is a dedicated teacher and a true academician. This is a good recognition to his research spirit. I remember his lectures delivered in several conferences. His presentations reveal about his clarity of thinking. This energizes the young mineral engineers of the present day world and also the entire Mineral Engineering fraternity.

    I congratulate him through this BLOG but from the ROOT OF MY HEART.

    With lots of regards.
    Prof Nikkam Suresh
    Professor of Mineral Engineering
    Department of Fuel & Mineral Engineering
    Indian School of Mines, DHANBAD

    ReplyDelete

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