Inaugural Robert W. Lyczkowski Endowed Lecture
The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology hosted the inaugural Robert W. Lyczkowski Endowed Lecture with a talk by Augusto Neri (Ph.D. CHE ’98), director of research in the volcanoes department at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Italy.
“The department is very thankful to Dr. Lyczkowski for his generosity in supporting this effort,” says CHBE department chair Sohail Murad. “The department can now boast of three endowed lectures each year.”
With 10 percent of the world’s population living within 100 kilometers (62.1 miles) of a historically active volcano, the potential for great loss of life and economic disruption in violent eruptions has emerged as a major problem, particularly in countries such as Italy.
Neri’s lecture, titled “Multiphase Flow Modeling of Explosive Eruptions and Their Hazards: Some Achievements and Perspectives,” presented an overview of the contributions of multiphase flow models to the problem of predicting volcanic eruptions, the current state of simulations used to quantify hazard at high-risk volcanoes, and key next steps to further progress in the field.
Lyczkowski (M.S. GE ’66, Ph.D. GT ’70) is known for his contributions to the establishment of the theoretical foundation for describing multiphase flow. He has expertise in heat transfer, erosion, light water and liquid metal nuclear reactors, in-situ processing of fuels, concentrated suspensions, and hemodynamics.
Over his career, Lyczkowski worked at leading companies, national laboratories, and as a faculty member at Illinois Tech. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a recipient of the prestigious AIChE Ernst W. Thiele Award.
Lyczkowski has been selected to receive an Illinois Tech Professional Achievement Award, which will be bestowed in fall 2023.
Image: Illinois Tech CHBE Department Chair Sohail Murad, Henry R. Linden Professor of Engineering at Illinois Tech Hamid Arastoopour, Director of Research in the Volcanoes Department at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Italy Augusto Neri (Ph.D. CHE ’98), Robert Lyczkowski (M.S. GE ’66, Ph.D. GT ’70)
