Panagiotis D. Christofides, Professor and Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering, has been named the holder of the William D. Van Vorst Chair in Chemical Engineering Education, effective January 1, 2017.
This endowed chair was established in 2011 in honor of William D. Van Vorst, a longtime professor at UCLA Engineering, through a $2 million gift from UCLA alumni Ralph and Marjorie Crump, to support a highly accomplished scholar in chemical engineering who has a proven track record of excellence in teaching and student mentorship.
Professor Christofides is a world leader in control theory and process control with over 450 refereed publications and seven books that have earned him a Google Scholar h-index of 63 to date. He has a strong and steady commitment to undergraduate and graduate Chemical Engineering instruction and curriculum development. He has advised nearly sixty graduate students and has graduated thirty-five PhD students, many of whom hold leading positions in academia or industry including twelve at the faculty of major universities worldwide. He has received numerous national and international awards for his work and he is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC and AAAS.