Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate student Radhakrishna Tumbalam Gooty is the recipient of the 2020 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Separation Division Graduate Student Research Award in the Distillation and Absorption Division.

Tumbalam Gooty will receive a plaque and cash prize during the planned Separations Division Awards Banquet on Monday, November 16 at the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco, or via a remote presentation if necessary due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Every year, the Separations Division of AIChE recognizes outstanding graduate student researchers in various areas of the Separations Division. The winner of the award is selected based on a single peer-reviewed publication contributing toward fundamentals or applications of separations. Tumbalam Gooty received this award for his paper titled “An MINLP formulation for the optimization of multicomponent distillation configurations” published in “Computers and Chemical Engineering” Journal.

Tumbalam Gooty is currently a 5th year PhD student advised by Dr. Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. His research involves development of novel mathematical programs and global optimization algorithms for systematically identifying energy-efficient and cost-effective distillation schemes. Tumbalam Gooty’s research allows chemical and petrochemical industries that use distillation-based separation units to design more efficient schemes. Tumbalam Gooty is a Purdue Chemical Engineering Centennial Fellow.

Source: Radhakrishna Tumbalam Gooty, rtumbala@purdue.edu