The NJIT Board of Overseers will present the second New Jersey Institute of Technology Excellence in Research Prize and Medal on October 7, 2009, to internationally acclaimed expert in membrane separation technologies

KAMALESH SIRKAR, PhD

Kamalesh K. Sirkar, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Foundation Professor in Membrane Separations at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).  Sirkar is an internationally renowned expert in membrane separation technologies. He is the inventor of the commercialized membrane-based solvent extraction technology for which Hoechst Celanese received Honorable Mention in the 1991 Kirkpatrick Award. He has pioneered among others the notion of microporous membranes as membrane contractors of two immiscible fluid phases as well as the contained liquid membrane.

Sirkar was a professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT, Kanpur as well as at Stevens Institute of Technology.  He has received a number of honorary degrees and awards including the 2005 AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology and the 2008 Clarence Gerhold Award of the Separations Division of AIChE.

He is the editor of the Elsevier Series in Membrane Science and Technology and an Associate Editor of Separation Science and Technology. He is serving/has served as a member of the editorial boards of J. Membrane Science, I&EC Research, and Separation Science and Technology.  Sirkar is a co-editor of the widely used Membrane Handbook. He has authored 152 refereed publications, 18 book chapters, 24 US patents and over 250 presentations.  He was the President of the North American Membrane Society during 1998-1999.

President Altenkirch's Excellence in Research Remarks (pdf)