2/22/2023 Ed West
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is proud to celebrate Leo Chiang for being inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) this year.
Written by Ed West
Alumnus Leo Chiang (MS '99, PhD '01) will be inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He is the 54th member of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to receive this honor.
One of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, membership to the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education. Chiang made the list with recognition for his contributions to process data analytics, its applications to process monitoring and continuous improvement in the chemical industry.
Chiang is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and has served as the 2014-2016 Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) director, 2016 CAST 10E programming chair, 2017-2018 spring meeting program chair (MPC), and 2019-2022 Executive Board of the Program Committee (EBPC). At the spring meeting, Chiang was instrumental in setting up the Big Data Analytics Topical Conference (2015 - 2017) and Industry 4.0 Topical Conference (2018 - 2020).
The AIChE has recognized Chiang with the 2016 Herbert Epstein Award for his programming leadership and the 2016 Computing Practice Award for his world-class leadership in the development and application of methodologies in analytics for batch and continuous processes known as Big Data.
Chiang is also active in the broader engineering and control community. The American Automatic Control Council recognized him with the 2020 Control Engineering Practice Award. Chiang currently serves as Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) trustee and 2023 Foundations of Process/Product Analytics and Machine learning (FOPAM) meeting program co-chair.
Chiang is a Senior R&D Digital Fellow at The Dow Chemical Company. He co-authored two books based on his graduate research work here at UIUC, and has published over 60 externally refereed journal/proceedings papers, and has given over 130 conference presentations and university lectures.