Ronald W. Rousseau

Ronald W. Rousseau holds the Cecil J. “Pete” Silas Endowed Chair at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He served as chair of the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering for almost 27 years. A graduate of Louisiana State University, Dr. Rousseau is co-author of Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes (Wiley 1978, 1986, 2000), a text used internationally and by more than 80% of the chemical engineering programs in the United States; he also is editor of the Handbook of Separation Process Technology (Wiley, 1987).  His research has explored numerous areas related to separation processes and resulted in more than 190 journal articles, book chapters and monographs, and more than 250 presentations at technical meetings and seminars for industry and universities.

For his contributions to chemical engineering education, Dr. Rousseau received the Warren K. Lewis Award from AIChE, and he received the Clarence G. Gerhold Award from the Separations Division and the Forest Products Award given by the Forest Products Division. He is a Fellow of both AIChE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was selected for the LSU Engineering Hall of Distinction. On the occasion of the AIChE Centennial, he was cited by AIChE as one of 30 authors of groundbreaking chemical engineering books. In January 2010, he was awarded a Docteur Honoris Causa by L’Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse.

Dr. Rousseau is an executive editor of Chemical Engineering Science and topic editor for Crystal Growth and Design.  Through several leadership positions, he has had an impact on the national research agenda and activities of AIChE. He has been a director of AIChE and has led numerous AIChE initiatives in separations, publications, and continuing education. During his term of offices as Chair of the Council for Chemical Research, he was a leading advocate for expanding the nation’s research agenda and led a major restructuring of CCR.