Professor Ignacio E. Grossmann is the R. R. Dean University Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He obtained his B.S. degree at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, in 1974, and his M.S. and Ph.D. at Imperial College in 1975 and 1977, respectively. He is currently director of the 'Center for Advanced Process Decision-making,' an industrial consortium that involves 20 petroleum, chemical, engineering and software companies. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and his major awards include the 1994 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of AIChE, the 1997 William H. Walker Award of AIChE, 2009 Warren Lewis Award of AIChE, and 2011 Research Excellence in Sustainable Engineering Award. He was also named “One of the Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by AIChE in 2008.
His research interests lie in the application of mathematical programming to the design and operation of chemical plants and process supply chains. Within these areas he has worked on a number of problems that are related to the optimal design of sustainable chemical processes and supply chains. He has authored more than 300 papers, several monographs on design cases studies, and the textbook 'Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design.'