CURRICULUM VITAE

S. K. Kawatra

Chair and Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, Michigan 49931
Phone: (906) 487-2064
Fax: (906) 487-3213

email: skkawatr@mtu.edu



CURRICULUM VITAE 2004 (PDF)

Educational Qualifications:

  • M. S. Physics, University of Poona, India, 1966
  • Ph. D., Metallurgical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia, 1975

    Awards:

    • Mentor Award, First Recipient of this Award, Michigan Technological University, 2002
    • Frank F. Aplan Award, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Engineers, NY, 2002.
    • Robert H. Richards Award, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Engineers, NY, 2000.
    • Taggart Award, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Inc., 1994
    • Distinguished Member Award, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Inc., 1992
    • Michigan Association of Governing Boards Distinguished Faculty Member Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Michigan Higher Education, 1988
    • House of Representatives, State of Michigan, passed Resolution NO714 for Contributing to Higher Education in State of Michigan, 1988
    • Michigan Technological University Research Award, 1987

    Professional Work History:

    • Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, Assistant Professor from September 1977, Associate Professor from September 1980, and Professor from September 1985 -
    • Department of Mining and Material Process Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, Professor and Chair, from August, 2000.
    • Morgantown Energy Technology Center, Morgantown, Department of Energy, from May 1984 to August 1984
    • Department of Mineral Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, from April 15, 1977, to August 31, 1977
    • Mineral Sciences Laboratories, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Ottawa, from January 1975 to April 1977
    • Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Center, University of Queensland, Australia, from January 1971 to December 1974
    • Mount Isa Mines Ltd., Mount Isa, Australia, from January 1973 to July 1973
    • Atomic Energy Commission, India, from March 1968 to January 1971

    Membership in Professional Organizations:

  • Distinguished Member, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration
  • Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers

    Editorial Boards:

    • Coal Preparation, Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, 1995-1998
    • International Journal of Mineral Processing, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam 1991-1994
    • Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, PA: Editor-in-Chief, 1996-
    • Minerals & Metallurgical Processing, publ. by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy &
      Exploration, Inc., Editor-in-Chief, 2002-
    • International Journal of Environmental Issues in Minerals and Energy Industry, A. A. Balkema Publishing Co., Amsterdam

    Advisory Panel:

    • Indigenous Space Resource Utilization Advisory Panel, sponsored by Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston

    University Activities:

    • Established a Coal Research Laboratory in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering. The laboratory consists of several test rigs such as hydrocyclone, waste stream analyzer for ash and iron ore, and column flotation cells. These rigs are well instrumented. One article on this laboratory written by the editors of Coal Mining and Processing appeared in July 1982. Another article written by the editors of Design News appeared in the January 1984 issue.
    • Member of several committees of the Department, College of Engineering, and the University, including the University Best Researcher Award Committee, 1987-1990; Chairman, Promotion and Tenure Committee, College of Engineering, 1989; University Senator 1992- 1995.

    Research Funding: (Single PI, except where listed)
    Total Funding: $ 4,312,255

    • Development of Sensors for On-Line Analysis of Ash in Coal Slurries-funded by EPRI ; DOE
    • Process Analysis of Comminution Circuits-Particle Size, Rheology, Temperature-funded by USBM
    • Effect of Reagent Addition on the Response of a Fine Coal Flotation Circuit-funded by the U. S. DOE
    • Column Flotation of Ohio Coals -funded by the State of Ohio
    • Planetary Materials and Resource Utilization -funded by the NASA ( Multiple Investigators)
    • Bacterial Desulfurization of Coal -funded by the State of Michigan ; USDOE ; MERRA
    • Coal Cleaning by Heavy Media Cyclones -funded by the USDOE/ Process Tech
    • On-Line Measurement of Viscosity and Rheology-funded by Dow Chemical Company
    • Utilization of Gypsum -funded by State of Illinois , USDOE
    • Analysis of Grinding and Flotation Circuit at Copper Range Company, White Pine, MI
    • Production of Inorganic Pellet Binders from Fly Ash, Funded by the State of Illinois, Il Department of Natural Resources, State of Minnesota,, USDOE
    • Agglomeration of Granular and Fine Particulate Industrial Wastes, Funded by EPA,
    • Froth Flotation of Coal, Funded by National Science Foundation,
    • Physical Removal of Toxins from Contaminated Sediments, EPA,
    • Separation of Flue Gas Scrubber Sludge in to Marketable Products, US DOE,
    • Coal Grinding Model Development, Electrical Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA
    • Investigation of Fly-Ash Based Foundry Molds, NSF
    • Prevention of Self Heating of Swarf, General Motors
    • Chemistry and Physics of Taconite Agglomeration, Minnesota DNR,
    • Application of Chemistry and Physics of Taconite Agglomeration, Minnesota DNR,
    • Optimization of Comminution Circuit Throughput and Product Size Distribution by Simulation and Control., USDOE,
    • Verification of Steel Making Slag Iron Content, USDOE, (PI Jim Hwang and Robert Greenlund),

    Administrative Experience and Philosophy:

    • Initial administrative experience -service on the Board of Directors of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) from 1997 to 2000, and was Chair of the Mineral Processing Division of SME for 1997-1998.
    • In 2000, established and became the first Chair of the Department of Mining and Materials Process Engineering at Michigan Technological University. Before establishing this Department, sought the written opinions of personnel working in a wide variety of industries that would be of direct interest to the new Department. Organized a meeting with them, presented plans, and used their input to plan a strong, practical set of goals for the Department. Also established a highly competent and motivated Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) to review the Department activities, to provide ongoing guidance as to the needs of industry that the Department needed to address, and to provide assistance in generating funds for the Department and in placing students in the best possible positions for beginning their careers.

    Teaching Philosophy:
    Teaching is the most important function of any university. In engineering education, it is very important that students learn the basic fundamentals of engineering thoroughly, and not simply memorize numerous facts that they could easily look up in any technical reference. This way, they will have the necessary background to adapt and learn on their own in their future careers.

    I also feel that it is of great importance for students to be fully aware of how their engineering skills will be applied on an industrial scale. I therefore take my students on a large number of plant trips so that they can see how theory translates into practice, and what is involved in actually implementing a process after it has been developed in the lab. I also hire as many undergraduate students as possible to assist graduate students in their research, which gives the graduate students valuable management experience while also helping the undergraduates improve their knowledge and skills.

    Perhaps most important, I make sure that all of my students acquire good communications skills, because even the most talented engineer is of little value to industry if he cannot communicate his knowledge to others. In undergraduate classes, particular emphasis is given to group projects and to both written and oral presentations of their project results. My graduate students give weekly presentations of their work in progress, present technical papers at national conferences, and publish in refereed technical journals.

    Research Philosophy and Accomplishments:
    My general research philosophy is to carry out research in close cooperation with industry, and to make sure that all of my students start with fundamental research, and carry it all the way to implementation in operating plants. I believe that this gives them the best possible preparation for their future careers. For example, our project with General Motors started with one of their plant engineers coming to us with the problem of spontaneous combustion of their machining wastes. They had been unable to solve this problem because they could not reproduce the effect in the laboratory, and so could not determine what approaches might be helpful. We first developed a sampling plan to ensure that our laboratory samples were in fact representative of the machining waste. Since there was no standard method available for measuring the rate and degree of spontaneous heating, we then devised a suitable test. Using this test, we determined which of several candidate treatments would actually reduce the degree of self-heating. As the final stage of the project, my student then travelled to the GM plant for full-scale tests of the anti-heating treatments. The most successful treatment was then adopted by GMand they used it to solve their problem. My student was intimately involved in all stages of this project, and gained invaluable experience in all stages of carrying out a solution to an engineering problem. I have worked on a wide variety of other research projects, with some of the most significant listed below:

    1. Ash Analyzer
    I developed the first on-line slurry ash analyzer based on X-ray backscatter, which has been patented and licensed to Outokumpu Oy, Finland. The analyzer incorporates two sensors: a gamma-ray transmission unit to measure the percent solids of the slurry, and an X-ray backscatter/ fluorescence unit to determine the ash content of the entire slurry. The combined signal from the two sensors provides a means for determining the ash content of the solids in the slurry.

    2. On-Line Measurement of Rheology
    My research group has developed a technique for rapid on-line measurement of the rheology of particulate processing streams. This method uses standard, off-the-shelf transducers, which are combined with computations using the gas law and the Hagen-Poiseuille equation to calculate the rheological behavior of the particulate suspension over a wide range of shear rates. Unlike existing vibrational and tube viscometers (which operate at fixed shear rates), the stress/ strain data is calculated directly, which allows the viscosity to be determined at whatever shear rates are of most interest for the process.

    3. Processing of Scrubber Sludge
    We have developed a technique for purifying flue-gas scrubber sludge, to improve its marketability. A combination of water-only cycloning and column flotation is used to remove unreacted limestone from the sludge at a low cost, leaving material that can be used for manufacturing gypsum products. The water-only cyclone removes the coarse, higher-density particles (which are mainly limestone), and the flotation column then removes the remaining fine limestone. The horizontally-baffled flotation column used for this work was developed by my group to reduce the amount of axial mixing in column flotation, which results in a better separation efficiency than is achieved with unbaffled flotation columns.

    Teaching Interests:
    On-Line Sensors and Process Control, Particulate Processing, Plant Design

    Consulting Activities:

  • Arthur D. Little Company
  • Norton, Hambleton, Inc.,
  • Ontario Research Foundation
  • United Nations

    Professional Activities:

    • Elected, Chair, Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1997-1998.
    • Elected, Vice Chairman, Mineral Processing Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1996-1997.
    • Elected, First Regional Vice Chairman, Mineral Processing Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1995-1996.
    • Elected, Second Regional Vice Chairman, Mineral Processing Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1994-1995.
    • Elected, Secretary-Treasurer, Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993-1994.
    • Program Coordination Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993-1995.
    • Book Publishing Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993-1996
    • Book Publishing Committee, Vice Chairman, 1993-1994, Chairman, 1994-95, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.
    • Chairperson (1984-85) of the Mineral Processing Division of the Upper Peninsula American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (U. P.-AIME); Vice-Chairperson (1985-86); Chairperson (1986-87); Board of Directors, 1986-90.
    • Health and Safety Committee, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration: member, 1984-1986.
    • Research and Development Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration: member, 1990-1992; chairman-elect, 1990; chairman, 1991.
    • Mineral Processing Fundamentals Committee, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and
      Exploration: member 1983-1991; vice-chairman, 1990; chairman 1991.
    • Educational Issues Committee, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration: member, 1991- 1994.
    • Program Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration member, 1991, Chairman-Elect 1993, Chairman 1994.
    • Stefanko Award Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993-1994.
    • Coal Preparation Unit Committee, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993- 1994.
    • Regional/ Topical Meetings Committee, Program Chairman Elect, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993.
    • Outstanding Young Engineer Award Committee, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1993-1999.
    • General Committee, Mineral & Metallurgical Processing Division, member, 1991.
    • Executive Committee, Coal Division, Society for Mining, Metallurgy &Exploration; member, 1992.
    • Organized international symposium: "Comminution Practices," Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Denver, 1997.
    • Organized international symposium: "High Efficiency Coal Preparation," Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Denver, 1995.
    • Organized international symposium: "New Remediation Technology in the Environmental Arena", Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Denver, 1995.
    • Organized international symposium: "Comminution, Theory and Practice," Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Phoenix, 1992.
    • Organized and chaired several technical sessions for the Instrument Society of America, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the International Mineral Processing Congress.
    • Organized international symposium: "Biotechnology in Minerals and Metal Processing," Society of Mining Engineers, Los Vegas, 1989.
    • Organizing and Advisory Committee for the Fourth International Conference on Processing and Utilization of High-Sulfur Coals and the International Symposium Control '90, sponsored by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.

    Board of Directors:

  • Process Technology, Inc., Calumet, MI, 1986-1989
  • U. P. Section of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 1986-1990
  • Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, 1997-2000.

    Patents:

    • On-Line Slurry Ash Analyzer -U. S. Patent No. 4916-719, 1990. Outokumpu Oy, Finland, has paid to license the technology, and is currently preparing to market the units worldwide. The instrument has been tested by Outokumpu on Russian, Chinese, and European coals with good results.
    • Process for Extracting Oxygen and Iron from Iron-Oxide-Containing Ores -U. S. Patent No. 4,997,533 March 5, 1991.
    • Flotation Column with Adjustable Supported Baffles -U. S. Patent No. 5,335,785,
      August 9,1994.
    • Method for Producing Powder from Polycrystalline Inorganic Material, Patent Pending, application serial No. 016,850, filed February 12, 1993
    • Method and Apparatus for On-Stream Measurement of Rheological Properties, application serial No. C39,605, filed July 1994. The unit will be tested at the Dow Chemical Company and is the first sensor which can measure rheology of slurries containing particulate matter.

    Books:
    B. J. Scheiner, F. M. Doyle, and S. K. Kawatra (editors), Biotechnology in Minerals and Metal Processing, published by the Society of Mining Engineers, 1989, 209 pp.

    S. K. Kawatra (ed.), Comminution-Theory and Practice, published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Inc., 1992, 693 pp.

    B. J. Scheiner, T. D. Chatwin, H. El. Shall, S. K. Kawatra and A. E. Torma (editors), Inc., New Remediation Technology in the Environmental Arena, published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration; 1995, 235pp.

    S. K. Kawatra (ed.), High Efficiency Coal Preparation, published by the Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration, 1995, 449 pp.  

    S. K. Kawatra (ed), "Comminution Practices", Published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Littleton, CO, 1997, 352 pp.

    S. K. Kawatra and T. C. Eisele, "Coal Desulfurization", Taylor and Francis, 2001, 360pp.
     

    S. K. Kawatra and K. A. Natarajan( editors), "Mineral Biotechnology", Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, , 2001, 263pp..


    Publications:

    Beneficiation of Machining wastes


    Presentations and Reports:



  •  
    11/14/03