Eric Suuberg

 Dr. Eric M. Suuberg, Professor of Engineering and C.V. Starr Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship at Brown University, has been selected for the 2024 Distinguished Researcher Award. An ACS award symposium in honor of Prof.  Suuberg will be held in the Energy and Fuels Division during the ACS Fall 2024 National Meeting in Denver, CO.

Professor Suuberg has been working at Brown University since 1981 where he is one of the founding members of Brown's Chemical Engineering program. He has served as Associate Dean of the Faculty (2002-2005), and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Division of Engineering. His research interests have been in the areas of energy and environmental engineering as well as carbon science. Professor Suuberg has made distinguished research contributions to the chemistry of pyrolysis as well as combustion and gasification, of such fuels as coal, biomass, and solid waste in extensive research. His research contributions have focused on both theoretical and experimental aspects of process kinetics and thermodynamics in (1) the chemistry of nitrogen in coal and char, with particular attention given to the carbon/nitric-oxide reactions; (2) kinetics of coal pyrolysis; (3) thermal decomposition of cellulose; and (4) carbon-oxygen reactions. His research laid the foundation for the understanding of NOx formation from solid fuels as a function of pyrolysis and combustion conditions. His work advanced the science of NOx reactions and mathematical modeling, enabling modelers to increase the theoretical models' sophistication with the increased performance of computer hardware systems. Examples of his environmental research include: (1) research on waste-tire conversion and utilization; (2) unburned carbon in fly-ash; (3) polycyclic aromatics; (4) experiments and modeling of vapor intrusion; (5) mercury capture from combustion flue gas; and (6) indoor air quality. He has roughly 200 peer-reviewed papers and 9 patents.

He has made important and sustained contributions in service to the ACS Division of Fuel Chemistry and its successor Energy and Fuels (ENFL) for over 30 years. He was the Division Chair, co-organizer of several ACS symposia, and also a long-time Trustee of the Division Trust Fund. In 1999 he was honored with the prestigious Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Chemistry for his outstanding contributions to energy-related research. In 2011 he became a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He served as a Principal Editor of the journal Fuel for over two decades from 2000 until 2021, and has shaped Fuel into one of the world’s most recognized and trusted sources of scholarship in the fuel science