Olaf A. Hougen Visiting Professors, Kung and Marquardt

Harold H. Kung (19K JPG)

Harold H. Kung spent the spring semester with us as Olaf A. Hougen Visiting Professor. He is a professor of chemical engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Throughout his professional career, Harold has been interested in understanding the surface chemistry of solid catalysts, with emphasis on the relationship among the solid, surface, and catalytic properties. He is particularly interested in identifying factors that affect selectivity in a catalytic reaction. His group has extensively studied selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. In recent years, they have investigated other industrially important processes such as reduction of Nox for lean-burn combustion engines and hydrocarbon conversion over zeolites.

While in Madison, Professor Kung wrote most of the first draft of a textbook on heterogeneous catalysis. He presented two Hougen Lectures, "Acid Strength, Pore Diffusion, and Hydrocarbon Cracking Reaction on Zeolite Catalysts" and "Catalytic Nox Reduction by Hydrocarbon in an Oxidizing Atmosphere." He found the department research environment stimulating and fully enjoyed his stay with us.

Harold received his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from UW-Madison in 1971 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 1974. After a short stay at DuPont Central Research in Delaware, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern in 1976 and was promoted to full professor in 1984. He served as department chair from 1985-1991 and as director of the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science from 1992-1996. He is the author of Transitional Metal Oxides: Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, and a co-editor of Methanol Production and Use. He received the 1991 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, the 1999 Robert L. Burwell, Jr. Lectureship of the North American Catalysis Society, and the 1999 Herman Pines Award of the Chicago Catalysis Club. In 1996, he received the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship and was the John McClanahan Henske Distinguished Lecturer at Yale University. He has served on the National Research Council committee to review the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles program. He is currently an editor for Applied Catalysis A, General.

Wolfgang Marquardt (8K JPG)

Wolfgang Marquardt is in residence during 1999 as Olaf A. Hougen Visiting Professor. He is a professor at RWTH Aachen University of Technology in Germany, where he also directs the Institute for Process Systems Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Wolfgang is internationally recognized for his work in process systems engineering. His research interests focus on model-based methods for process analysis, design, and operations. Current research topics include methodologies and computer-based tools for modeling and design, integration of first-principle and data-driven modeling, optimization-based techniques for process operations, adaptive numerical methods as well as applications to distillation, evaporation, membrane and multiphase reaction processes.

During his stay in Madison, Wolfgang is working on a book, tentatively titled Systematic Modeling of Chemical Processes, and writing a number of papers. He appreciates the good working conditions and stimulating environment of the department, and has enjoyed his interactions with colleagues in the area of process systems engineering.

He has given one Hougen lecture, "Multiscale Approaches to Process Simulation and Optimization," and plans to present another this fall on "A Systems Engineering Approach to Experimental Analysis."

Wolfgang grew up in the Stuttgart area in Germany. He studied at the University of Stuttgart, earning his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Chemical and Process Engineering in 1982 and his Dr.-Ing. degree in 1988. He held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Stuttgart from 1988 until 1992. During this period he took a leave as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the UW-Madison in 1989-90. Wolfgang completed his Habilitation (a German degree beyond the Ph.D.) at the University of Stuttgart in 1992, and then accepted his current position at RWTH Aachen.

Wolfgang received the Alumni Award of the University of Stuttgart in 1988 and the Arnold-Eucken Award of VDI-GVC (German Society of Chemical Engineers) in 1990. Recently, he has been appointed as a member of the Northrhine-Westfalian Academy of Sciences. o