
Erdogan Kiran, professor of chemical engineering, at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, on Sunday delivered the opening plenary lecture at the 13th European Meeting on Supercritical Fluids, held in The Hague, Netherlands, scheduled for October 9 to 12.
Kiran, whose research focus is at the crosssections of polymerscience and polymeric materials, supercritical fluids, and high-pressure processes, said being asked to give the opening plenary lecture at an international conference is an honor “as it means your peers recognize you as one of the leading individuals in the field”.
His talk was titled “Polymer Solutions and Modifications in Supercritical or Dense Fluids” in which he will discuss the current and future trends of polymer modifications in supercritical fluids. Supercritical fluids display properties that are in between those of gases and liquids and function as tunable solvents in materials processing with numerous applications pertaining to polymer synthesis, separation and modifications. Kiran has been active in the area for more than 25 years.
Kiran also will lead a session dedicated to nanostructured polymers at the conference which will attract some 300 scientists and chemists from around the world, he said.
Kiran earned his bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, a master’s from Cornell University in 1971, and a doctoral degree from Princeton University in 1974, all in chemical engineering. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Supercritical Fluids which he founded in 1988.