Christodoulos Achilleus Floudas (August 31, 1959 – August 14, 2016) was a Greek–American chemical engineer. Floudas completed a diploma in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, about east of Thessa ...

in 1982, and received his Ph.D. in 1986 at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

under the guidance of Ignacio Grossmann. Floudas began teaching at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

upon earning his doctorate, and was later named the Stephen C. Macaleer ’63 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science. From February 2015, he was the director of the Energy Institute at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, as well as the Erle Nye ’59 Chair Professor for Engineering Excellence within the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. His research areas were

global optimization Global optimization is a branch of operations research, applied mathematics, and numerical analysis that attempts to find the global minimum or maximum of a function or a set of functions on a given set. It is usually described as a minimization ...

and

process systems engineering Process engineering is a field of study focused on the development and optimization of industrial processes. It consists of the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and laws of nature to allow humans to transform raw ma ...

. In 2011, Floudas was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

" r contributions to theory, methods, and applications of

computational chemistry Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulations to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry incorporated into computer programs to calculate the structures and properties of mol ...

, and

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

." In 2013, he was elected a fellow of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...

. From 2014 to 2015, Floudas was listed as one of the highly cited researchers. His h-index is 100 according to ''Google Scholar''.

Personal life

Floudas was born in

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on 31 August 1959. He died on 14 August 2016 while on vacation in

Chalkidiki Chalkidiki (; , alternatively Halkidiki), also known as Chalcidice, is a peninsula and regional unit of Greece, part of the region of Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia in Northern Greece. The autonomous Mount Athos reg ...

at the age of 56.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Floudas, Christodoulos 1959 births 2016 deaths Chemical engineering academics 21st-century American engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Scientists from Ioannina American chemical engineers Texas A&M University faculty 20th-century American engineers Princeton University faculty 21st-century Greek educators Greek engineers 20th-century Greek educators Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni Carnegie Mellon University alumni Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics