Sikdar to Chair AIChE's Institute for Sustainability

Chemical Engineering Progress, Mar 2008

The Institute for Sustainability (IfS), an AIChE technological community, has appointed Dr. Subhas K. Sikdar, associate director for science for the National Risk Management Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as its new chair. Prior to this appointment, Sikdar held a variety of AIChE leadership roles - including membership in the Societal Impact Operating Council.

Created by AIChE in 2004, the IfS serves the needs of professionals, industries and govermental bodies that contribute to the advancement of sustainability and sustainable development. IfS approaches sustainability from the perspectives of engineering and scientific disciplines, with the objective of promoting the societal, economic and environmental benefits of sustainable and green engineering.

In accepting the position as chair, Sikdar discussed the importance of the IfS. "The Institute is critical to furthering the adoption of sustainability concepts into engineering education, research and development, measurement tools and frameworks to guide the design of more sustainable products and processes," he said. "I am thrilled to be a part of such an impactful organization, and look forward to achieving many milestones this year."

Before joining the EPA in 1990, Sikdar was a manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and General Electric's Corporate Research & Development Center. He has published more than 70 technical papers in respected journals, has 23 U.S. patents, and has edited 13 books. He is the founder and the coeditor-in-chief of the international journal Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, published quarterly by Springer Verlag of Germany.

Sikdar has received numerous honors, including three EPA bronze medals, an R&D 100 award, the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Awards from the Univ. of Calcutta and the Univ. of Arizona and AIChE's Lawrence K. Cecil Award for Environmental Chemical Engineering. He is a Fellow of AIChE.

For more information about the Institute for Sustainability, visit: www.aiche.org/IFS/.