Alex C. Hoffmann - Curriculum vitae#

Full CV including a list of publications

Name: Alex C. Hoffmann, PhD (UCL) FIChemE CEng CSci MAE MNTVA

Career Summary More than twenty years of industrial and academic experience in research and development, consultation and teaching within the field of Chemical Engineering. Expertise in transport phenomena and thermodynamics, specifically in technology involving multiphase systems. Focus on cross-disciplinary research for industry (mainly energy) applying micro- and nanoscale modeling to processes involving multiphase systems in cooperation with mathematicians, chemists and physicists.

Education/Qualifications

• 1980 B.Sc. (Hons. 2:1), Chemical Engineering, University of the South Bank. Specialization: electrochemistry
• 1983 Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Ramsay Memorial Laboratory for Chemical Engineering, University College London. Thesis: “Gas Fluidization at Elevated Pressures”.
• 1985 Chartered Engineer, CEng.
• 2003 Chartered Scientist, CSci.

Working Experience

• 01/2001–present Full Professor at the Dept. of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen. Responsible for the masters specialization Multiphase Systems within the study programme Process Technology. Head of the Theoretical Physics and Energy Physics Unit in the Department, and head of a research group within the unit, the group having a yearly budget of about 3 million NOK.
• 01/1987–12/2000 Assistant, and from 1992 Associate professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Research: Particle and dispersed phase technology, (computational) fluid dynamics. Teaching: A number of courses in fundamental and applied thermodynamics and transport phenomena. Administration: Study coordinator for the Department. Served on planning committees for education reforms.
• 01/1984–01/1987 Research associate and consultant at SPS Harwell, UK, detached from the University of Surrey. Was responsible for the SPS cyclone research program, reporting to the sponsoring industries. Consultant in gas cleaning. Made the safety case for, and commissioned, an industrial scale experimental rig.
• 03/1978–03/1979 Engineer at UOP, Chicago, USA. Operated oil refining pilot plants. Researched processes for recovering heavy metals from oil residues. Characterized foaming problems in a catalytic cracking process.

Memberships, awards

• Member of Academia Europaea.
• Recipient of the Shell Global Solutions President’s Award in 2005. Special Recognition Certificate. In recognition of valued contribution to Shell Global Solutions’ Business.
• Member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences
• Fellow of The British Institution of Chemical Engineers
• Member of the Organizing and Governing Committee for the "Gas Conference in Bergen", a yearly conference for researchers, policy makers and industrialists
• Meltzer Grant at the University of Bergen 2001
• Served on NOKUT expert panel for the evaluation of new PhD course (Norway)
• Served on the NOVEM expert committee for evaluation of new drying technology (The Netherlands)
• Member of the WCNA2000 and the WCNA2004 (World Congress of Nonlinear Analysts) organizing committees
• Member of the WCPT4 (World Congress on Particle Technology) organizing committee
• Recipient of about 25 research awards from industry (mostly oil and gas related), including British Gas, Akzo-Organon, Bureau M+I, Cadbury, Shell Global Solutions, NAM, CMR-Prototech, Statoil, Norsk Hydro, Chevron and Aker Solutions, and public funding bodies, including the EU, SERC, NOVEM, NWO, EET and the NFR, and from universities, the RuG and the UoB.
• Research in mixing and segregation of particles in fluidized beds was awarded a prize in the ’Young Researchers award’ of the Particle Technology Subject Group of the IChemE.
• Research in rheokinetics awarded a prize at the 21. Annual European AIChE Symposium.
• Elected ’lecturer of the year’ for course "Applied Thermodynamics" by the chemistry students at the University of Groningen.
• Reviewer of books and articles for many leading international scientific journals in chemical engineering, applied mathematics and physics.
• Reviewer of proposals for funding bodies for applied and fundamental research.