Awards – Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE)

CAPE Working Party is involved in granting of the following awards:

EFCE Excellence Award in recognition of Outstanding PhD-Thesis on CAPE (PhD Award), promoted and funded by EFCE (www.efce.info);
CAPE-WP Award for a Recent Innovative Contribution (RIC Award), promoted and funded by CAPE WP;
CAPE-WP Award for Long Term Achievements (LTA Award), promoted and funded by CAPE WP.
George Stephanopoulos Award in Process Systems Engineering (GS Award) co-sponsored by the National Technical University of Athens, Greece; the EFCE-CAPE Working Party; and the AIChE-CAST Division.

The CAPE award for long term achievements (LTA) is given in recognition of a collection of outstanding achievements over an extended period of time (> 10 years) to the CAPE community (and specifically to the EFCE CAPE-WP) and to CAPE methods, tools and/or applications for the advancement of science, engineering and technology. The winner will have the opportunity to present a keynote talk a ESCAPE. The cost of the award winner’s ESCAPE conference participation will be covered by the local ESCAPE organizers

LTA Winners

2021: Professor Lorenz Biegler
2017: Prof. Ignacio Grossman
2013: Prof. Peter Glavic & Prof. Gintaras V. Reklaitis

The George Stephanopoulos Process Systems Engineering Award is given in recognition of outstanding achievements in Process Systems Engineering.

The award honors Prof. Stephanopoulos whose work includes seminal contributions influential to the community that provided the broadest coverage of PSE approaches and methodologies in process synthesis and design (continuous and batch); computer-aided modeling languages; process control; fault detection and diagnosis; operations planning; product design; synthesis of reaction and metabolic networks; synthesis and design of petrochemical sectors; synthesis and design of biorefineries; synthesis and design of pharmaceutical processes; AI in process engineering (products, processes, control, operations), and most recently in systems applications for the circular economy. He has received all major distinctions for a person in PSE.

The George Stephanopoulos Award is co-sponsored by the National Technical University of Athens, Greece; the EFCE-CAPE Working Party; and the AIChE-CAST Division. Winners will be selected between European and North American nominees in rotating years (2024, Europe, 2025 North America and so on). Winners among European nominees will be selected by the EFCE-CAPE Working Party; winners among North American nominees will be selected by the AIChE-CAST Division.

GS winners

This is a new one, no previous winners

The CAPE award for a recent innovative contribution (RIC) is given in recognition of an outstanding innovative contribution to recent advances in CAPE ideas, methods and/or tools. Recent means within the last 4 years from the current date.

RIC award

2023: Prof. Anton Kiss – Prof. David Bogle

2019: Prof. André Bardow – Prof. Joachim Gross

Frequency of the awards:

The awards are given at an alternating frequency of four years, such that at alternate two-year intervals one of the awards will be given (provided that at least one of the nominated candidates is found suitable). If there is an exceptional candidate and the CAPE WP members all agree, then a special case may be considered.

Procedures for giving the awards (LTA/RIC):

The CAPE WP Awards Committee is constituted by five CAPE WP members. At least two members should retire every time an award is given. No member can remain on the committee for more than five years.

Based on the submission of proposed candidates, the CAPE WP Awards Committee will nominate at most three of the submitted candidates, and distribute the relevant information at latest two weeks before the next WP business meeting.

The CAPE WP at the business meeting will select one of the nominated candidates as the award winner. The selection will be based on votes (one vote per CAPE-WP sitting member present). The selection will require the backing from at least two-thirds of the delegates and elected members present at the meeting and voting. If, after an initial ballot, none of the candidates obtains this required support, the candidate with a fewer number of votes will be eliminated and a new ballot will be organized with the rest of candidates. This procedure will be repeated if required until one candidate receives 2/3 of the votes or only one candidate remains. In this last case (only one candidate is maintained), if he/she does not receive the required support of 2/3 of the votes, no award will be given that year.

If there is more than one exceptional candidate and the CAPE WP members all agree, then a special case may be considered.

If a candidate is selected by the CAPE Working Party for an award, the award will be given at the next ESCAPE meeting (one year later), where the candidate will be given the opportunity to present a keynote talk. The cost of the award winner’s ESCAPE conference participation will be covered by the local ESCAPE organizers. Once the selected candidate has accepted to receive the award this information will be announced through a press release and posted on various websites (the CAPE WP website, the EFCE website, ….) and may be used by the local organizing committee to promote the ESCAPE series.

At the ESCAPE meeting, there will be a CAPE Awards session where the chairman of the CAPE award committee will introduce the award winner. The award should normally be presented jointly by the local host (or a representative for the host) and the chairman of the CAPE Working Party. The chairman of the CAPE Awards Committee and the local ESCAPE meeting chairman should together chair the special awards session.

Procedures for giving the GS award:

Based on the submission of proposed candidates, the CAPE WP will nominate at the annual business meeting the winner.