Biophysical Society Newsletter - October 2016

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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 18 OCTOBER 2016
Obituary
Christodoulos A. Floudas
Professor Christodoulos A. Floudas, director of the
Texas A&M Energy Institute and the Erle Nye
’59 Chair Professor for Engineering Excellence
in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical
Engineering at Texas A&M University, passed
away at age 56, in August, while on vacation with
his family in Greece.
He previously served Princeton University for 29
years and was the Stephen C. Macaleer ’63 Profes-
sor in Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus,
and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engi-
neering, Emeritus at Princeton.
Born in Ioannina, Greece, he earned a diploma
of chemical engineering from Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki in 1982, and a PhD in chemical
engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in
1986, studying under Professor I. E. Grossmann.
During a career that spanned four decades, he
became a world-renowned authority in math-
ematical modeling and optimization of complex
systems. His research interests were at the interface
of chemical engineering, applied mathematics,
and operations research, with principal areas of
focus including multi-scale systems engineering
for energy and the environment, chemical process
synthesis and design, process operations, discrete-
continuous nonlinear optimization, local and
global optimization, and computational chemistry
and molecular biology.
He was the recipient of numerous awards and
honors for teaching and research, including elec-
tion to the National Academy of Engineering in
2011, selection as a member of The Academy of
Medicine, Engineering, and Sciences of Texas in
2015, and induction as a Corresponding Member
of the Academy of Athens in 2015. Among other
recognitions, Floudas was the recipient of the
National Science Foundation Presidential Young
Investigator Award in 1988, the 2001 American
Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Profes-
sional Progress Award for Outstanding Progress
in Chemical Engineering, the 2006 AIChE
Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, and
he was named a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited
Researcher in 2014 for the 11 years between 2002
and 2012 and again in 2015. Floudas was a mem-
ber of the Biophysical Society since 2002.
He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Fotini, as
well as their daughter, Ismini .
—Photo and text courtesy of Texas
A&M University
Christodoulos A. Floudas
Seth H. Weinberg moved from a research faculty position at the Virginia
Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University to
an assistant professor position in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Weinberg is a
member of the Society's Public Affairs and Education Committees.
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