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Richard S. H. Mah
BSc, England’s University of Birmingham
PhD, Imperial
College in London
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| Richard S. H. Mah was a leader in the movement
to incorporate digital computing methods and their applications
into chemical engineering practice and education. Born in China,
Mah received a BSc from England’s University of Birmingham
and a PhD from Imperial College in London, both in chemical
engineering. After a two-year postdoctoral appointment at the
University of Minnesota, he spent five years each with Union
Carbide Corporation and the Exxon Math and Systems Company.
From 1972, when he joined Northwestern, until 1995, Mah dedicated
his life to chemical engineering education and research. He
authored many papers in the technical literature as well as
the influential monograph Chemical Process Structure and Information
Flows (1993). Mah held leadership positions in the Computing
and Systems Technology division of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He was a founding member and later
president of CACHE, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to furthering
the use of computer aids for chemical engineering. Among his
many professional accolades were the Youden Prize of the American
Society for Quality Control (1986), the AIChE Computing in
Chemical Engineering Award (1981), and the Ernest Thiele Award
of the Chicago Section of AIChE (1990). He became a fellow
of the AIChE in 1985. His last formal scholarly accomplishment
was a DSc in chemical engineering from the University of London
Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1993. The Richard
S. H. Mah Lectures on Modeling and Computation in Chemical
and Biological Engineering have been established through the
generosity of the Mah family to honor the memory of Richard
S. H. Mah and his contributions to Northwestern University,
its Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and
the profession of chemical engineering. In particular, the
lectures are meant to honor Mah's role as a champion of introducing
digital computing into modern chemical engineering. Each year
a recognized leader in the field is invited to address topics
that will cover diverse applications within the broad area
of modeling and computation in chemical and biological engineering
and will also appeal to individuals working in a wide range
of disciplines. |
