Professor Pradeep Agrawal has been appointed to the position of associate chair, with responsibilities that include the undergraduate program in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. The appointment will be effective September 1, 2006. Professor Agrawal will assume the position held by Professor F. Joseph Schork, who is leaving Georgia Tech to serve as the Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland.

Professor Agrawal brings both breadth and depth of experience as an educator to his new position. Since joining the Georgia Tech faculty in 1979, he has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. His commitment, as well as his passion for teaching have earned accolades from his students, and through student votes he has been selected as an outstanding faculty member on numerous occasions. He received the "Outstanding Professor in the College of Engineering" award from the Order of Omega (Interfraternity Council) in 1995. He was also a recipient of the "W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher" award in 1996. Professor Agrawal received these recognitions in addition to maintaining a very rigorous and demanding set of performance standards.

When teaching the Transport Phenomena/ Unit Operations laboratory courses, Professor Agrawal developed an in-house communication program for both oral and written skills. He was Faculty Advisor to the AIChE student Chapter for 18 years (1988-2005), and masterfully led the Chapter to being nationally recognized as one of the Outstanding Chapters in 13 of the last 15 years. He also received personal recognition by the AIChE as "Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor" in 1994.

Professor Agrawal's research interests are in the general area of heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering. Recent research projects have been related to (i) black liquor gasification (catalytic tar destruction) as well as (ii) development of catalytic pathways for using biomass as a feedstock for liquid fuels and hydrogen.