18-12-2012

UOP CEO Rajeev Gautam receives 2012 chemical engineering personal achievement award

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that UOP President and CEO Dr. Rajeev Gautam has received the 2012 Chemical Engineering Personal Achievement Award from Chemical Engineering magazine.

The annual award recognizes Gautam’s record of notable achievements in the application of chemical engineering principles to solve major societal challenges.

“Rajeev is a champion of translating the creative and scientific processes involved with research and development into solutions that greatly benefit society,” said Andreas Kramvis, president and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. “Whether it is meeting the need for more fuels or petrochemicals, or inventing cleaner, more sustainable technologies for a wide variety of applications, UOP, under Rajeev’s leadership, has made remarkable technological advances and has revolutionized the modern refining and petrochemicals industries. This award is a well-deserved testament to Rajeev’s outstanding leadership and hard work, and it is indicative of UOP’s strong position of technology leadership.”

Since being named to UOP’s top position in 2009, Gautam has led the introduction of several breakthrough technologies that help meet the world’s growing demand for energy and petrochemicals. These breakthroughs include Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process technology, which can convert non-crude oil sources such as coal or natural gas to building-block materials used for plastics production. UOP also developed the Uniflex™ process, which allows refiners to turn heavy, bottom-of-the-barrel crude into valuable products.

UOP recently acquired Thomas Russell Co., a leading provider of technology and equipment for natural gas processing and treating, broadening its offerings to help shale and conventional natural gas producers remove contaminants from natural gas and recover high-value natural gas liquids used for petrochemicals and fuel.

UOP’s Renewable Energy and Chemicals business has pioneered technologies to make Honeywell Green Diesel™ and Honeywell Green Jet Fuel™, which can be produced without compromising the food supply, as well as green transportation fuels from non-edible biomass.

UOP has 3,000 patents issued and pending worldwide, and it files an additional 200 distinct patent applications each year. It has advanced research and engineering centers in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East. UOP’s Chicago-area research facilities generate more than 3.5 million data points each day, and with more than 150 pilot plants globally, UOP is able to create important step-changes in technology and commercialize new products. In Gurgaon, India, UOP’s 400,000 square foot research center for refining and petrochemical process technology brings UOP’s research and development closer to its global consumer base, and its applications labs in Saudi Arabia and China help find solutions critical to regional customers.

Gautam began his career with Union Carbide in 1978, which became part of a joint venture with UOP in 1988. Before he was named president and CEO of UOP, Gautam served as vice president of research and development for UOP and vice president and chief technology officer for Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. During the last three decades, he has held several other key positions, spanning research and development, engineering and marketing.

Gautam has been responsible for the development and commercialization of a broad range of catalytic and separations applications for the refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries. Some of his most significant discoveries include the development of advanced algorithms that have become the cornerstone of modern process design and optimization software.

Gautam earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Drexel University. He also earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and has served in key roles in program development in the Computing and Systems Technology Division of AIChE.

The Chemical Engineering Personal Achievement Award has been awarded by Chemical Engineering magazine every other year since 1968 to industrial and academic leaders in the field of chemical engineering. Gautam was selected from a pool of 16 international finalists and presented with this prestigious award at the 2012 ChemInnovations Conference recently held in New Orleans, La.

For more information, please visit www.uop.com