Summary
A Don at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Professor Krist Gernaey paid a courtesy visit to the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Auckland. He was in Auckland to deliver a plenary lecture at CHEMECA 2023 conference.
Professor Krist visited the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering to widen out, and of course, he was not disappointed.
From left to right: Prof Ashvin Thambyah, Prof Krist Gernaey, Dr Isuru Udugama, and Prof Brent Young. Krist is an avid coffee consumer and has on numerous occasions commented on “how great the coffee is on Campus” and has developed a particular liking for a large flat white. Krist has also developed a taste for butter chicken and mutton Biryani, as evident by the photo.
Last week, we welcomed Professor Krist V. Gernaey, to CHEMMAT and the University of Auckland for a brief visit. Krist was in Auckland to deliver a plenary lecture at CHEMECA 2023, an Australasian chemical engineering conference organised by IChemE and this year hosted by the department here in Auckland. His Plenary lecture touched on the interconnection between digitalisation and sustainability and how these can be combined to engineer optimal outcomes in the quest towards net zero production. Krist is an old friend of CHEMMAT having invited a PhD student from CHEMMAT (all expenses paid) to attend the BIOPPRO World Talent Campus, a PhD level course on industrial biomanufacturing since its inception in 2013. Alumni from UOA (Dr. Isuru A. Udugama, Ms. Martina Álvarez Camps) have also worked at the Process and Systems Engineering (PROSYS) Centre at DTU which is headed by Krist.
Krist had first visited CHEMMAT and UOA in 2018 and again in 2019 (with Dr. Isuru A. Udugama, then a Postdoc at PROSYS). This was reciprocated by visits from Dr. Saied Baroutian and Prof. Brent R. Young in 2019 for a joint workshop and discussions. Brent also did a short sabbatical at PROSYS and DTU in 2019. This time in this visit, Krist was accompanied by Dr. Carina Gargalo, a researcher working at the PROSYS center. Krist and Carina took time to attend the research group meetings of the Industrial Information and Control Center (I2C2) and the exciting new department centre: Circular Innovations (CIRCUIT) Research Centre, led by A/Prof Saeid Baroutian.