The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Oct. 6) ratified faculty and staff appointments, awarded posthumous degrees, and approved department name changes and resolutions of appreciation including the appointment of Enrique Iglesia as the Michel Boudart Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Iglesia joins Purdue from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is a distinguished professor emeritus and the Theodore Vermeulen Chair Emeritus in chemical engineering. He is one of the world’s most celebrated researchers in heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reaction engineering. His research focuses on the synthesis and structural/functional assessments of solids as catalysts for the production and use of energy carriers and chemicals with minimal environmental footprints. Iglesia works with the Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources through research, industry innovation, entrepreneurship and educational activities. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Inventors and has received many honors, including the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize (the highest teaching award in the physical sciences at Berkeley), the 2019 Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ William H. Walker Institute Award for Excellence in Contributions to Chemical Engineering Literature, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture. Iglesia served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Catalysis and as the president of the North American Catalysis Society. He will be appointed as the Presidential Fellow for Energy Transitions, advising Purdue’s president and dean of engineering on matters and new initiatives related to transitions toward the more diverse deployment of new energy sources and carriers.