Professor Diane Hildebrandt | AIChE

Professor Diane Hildebrandt

SARChI Professor of Sustainable Process Engineering and Director of the Centre of Material and Process Synthesis
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Diane Hildebrandt is SARChI Professor of Sustainable Process Engineering and Director of the Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (COMPS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She obtained her BSc and PhD in Engineering and Chemical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Her current research interests focus on the synthesis and optimisation of reaction and separation processes.

Professor Hildebrandt has authored or co-authored over 80 scientific papers and has received 306 citations in the past three years.

Professor Hildebrandt is the first female chemical engineer to have been awarded an A-rating by South Africa’s National Research Foundation. She and colleague Professor David Glasser were jointly awarded the Bill Neale-May Gold Medal by the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers. This was the first time the award had been made to an academic. She is also a recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Researcher Award, University of the Witwatersrand. Diane is also the winner of the 2009 Distinguished Woman Scientist of the Year (Department of Science and Technology, South Africa) as well as the African Union (AU) Scientific award.

Professor Hildebrandt is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and has been elected to the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering of South Africa.