May 23, 2013

1. Dr Zen Gong, developer of the well known user-friendly software for flowsheeting calculations involving drying, evaporation, filtration, mixing as well as a large number of unit operations has upgraded the Simprosys program. Please click here for a brief outline of its capabilities and contact Simprotek for availability of trial software. Dr Gong was Professor Mujumdar’s PhD student at McGill University and studied the intricacies of industrial drying simulation needs and applications while a PhD student almost two decades ago.

2. Dr Shek Atiquere Rahman is organizing a Symposium on Sustainable Energy at Sharjah University, Abu Dhabi in 2014.

3. IDS2014 will be held in Lyon in August 2014. Please visit their website for deadlines and details.

4. EuroDrying2013 will be held in Paris in September 2013. Visit their website for details.

May 14, 2013

1. Please click here for abbreviated information giving a short professional profile (list form, not complete) and also plans after moving from NUS in mid August 2013. New contact information is also provided there.

2. Prof. Mujumdar is invited to the International Advisory Committee of CHEMCON 2013 to be held in Mumbai in December 2013.

3. Prof. Mujumdar is invited to be advisor and member of scientific committee of an International Symposium on Sustainable Energy to be held at the University of Sharjah, UAE in early 2014.

4. In November 2013 he will attend a 3 day meeting of the International Program Committee of the Process Technology Institute of Delft Technical University, Delft, Holland.

May 08, 2013

1. Dr Sachin Jangam will join NUS Chemical Engineering Separtment as Lecturer from July 1, 2013. Congrats, Sachin.

2. Dr Karthik Somasundaram has joined Prof. A.O. Tay's research group to work on thermal management of batteries.

3. Drs. Sachin, Jundika and Karthik have submitted final reports on their work for M3TC. The grant that established M3TC for five and a half years expired March 31, 2013. Numerous M3TC Technical reports currently on m3tc website will be available on this site and the sister site http://www.arunmujumdar.com/. The NUS site will cease in mid-August 2013.

4. Editorial processing for vol 5 of Modern Drying Technoloy (VCH-Wiley, Germany) is nearly completed for late 2013 publication. TPR has 2 chapters in this volume.

5. Prof. Mujumdar is now working on the 4th enhanced edition of the widely acclaimed Handbook of Industrial Drying (CRC Press, USA). There will be about 12 new chapters and many chapters updated. The publication is expected in latter half of 2014.

6. Two new e-books are being prepared for late 2013 to early 2014 completion.

7. Prof. Christopher Yap (main) and Dr Erik Birgersson ( Co-Advisor) will take over from Prof.Mujumdar the mentorship of Marjan Shaker and Tongwei over remaining 18 months of their PhD research. He will continue mentoring them from overseas until they complete their doctoral work.

8. An initiative to establish a US$30 million educational and research facility in Andhra Pradesh has advanced significantly. It is an initiative of Dr Nagarjun of Harvard who has assembled a group of world class researchers in nanotechnology in support of the proposal and facility. Prof. Mujumdar has supported this initiative.

March 19, 2013

1. Freely downloadable e-book entitled "Fluidization Engineering Practice" is now available at http://serve.me.nus.edu.sg/arun/E_books.htm.

2. Click here to download a special report on 7th WFCFD held at ICT, Mumbai, February 2013.

3. M3TC will cease operations as Centre effective March 31, 2013. However, the PIs can be reached for potential collaboration with industry directly. Various technical reports produced by Prof Mujumdar's group will be available at his personal site for a couple of years. Use google search to access them.

4. Prof Mujumdar gave seminar on University-Industry interaction including pros and cons and ways to potentially enhance it. The PPT can be downloaded here.

5. Good luck and best wishes to Drs Sachin Jangam, Karthik Somsundaram and Jundika Kurnia as they complete their productive stay with M3TC.

6. Prof. Mujumdar will remain with ME department until mid August.

March 18, 2013

1. Prof. Mujumdar received an award from Jiangsu province of China which has a GDP half of India's. The award is for International Cooperation in Science and Technology. The Governor of the province made the presentation on February 22 in Nanjing. The award certificate is shown below.

2. Prof J Litster of Purdue University was second recipient of the Prof. Arun S. Mujumdar Distinguished Visiting Professorship at ICT , Mumbai, India.
   The certificate and a photograph from the event is shown below.
   

    

3. Prof Mujumdar gave a talk on Academia-Industry  Interaction to ME faculty on March 15th. For PDF of the Power Point please click here.

4. M3TC grant ends on March 31st 2013.

February 28, 2013

1. Prof. Sakamon Devahastin, a PhD student of Prof. Mujumdar at McGill University, Canada, was recently recognized by the National Research Council of Thailand with award of their prestigious National Outstanding Researcher Award. Click here to view the medal. Hearty congratulations, Sak, from TPR Research Group/Family!

2. Prof. Mujumdar was conferred the highest Science and Technology Award by the Governor of Jiangsu Province, China, for International Cooperation. The august award ceremony was held in Nanjing on February 22nd 2013. Prof. Mujumdar had prior commitments in Mumbai at the same time and hence could not accept the award in person. Click here to view the certificate.

February 08, 2013

1. Prof. Mujumdar will present a public lecture on Personal Perspectives on University Industry Interaction at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai on February 20, 2013. It is sponsored under Dr. Balwant S Joshi Distinguished Visiting Professorship at ICT for 2012-2013. He will also lecture in the 7th WFCFD International Workshop being held there Feb. 21-23, 2013. For a synopsis of the lecture please click here.

2. Dr Karun Malhotra, CTO of Murata Electronics R&D, Kyoto, Japan will be visiting TPR on February 18, 2013.
   
   TPR Group wishes all Visitors a very happy, healthy and successful Year of the Snake.

February 06, 2013

1. Following posters depict the long history of close connection between various universities and industries in China and Prof. Mujumdar while he was at McGill University, Canada and after mid-2000 when he joined NUS, Singapore.
   
   

January 31, 2013

1. Prof. James Lister, Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, USA, has been appointed Prof. Arun S. Mujumdar Visiting Fellow , 2012-2013, by the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. He will lecture at the 7th WFCFD conference in Mumbai in February 2013.

2. M3TC successfully conducted a Workshop on Industrial Drying on Saturday, January 26th 2013. There were a number of participants from Malaysia. The speakers were: Prof. Mujumdar (NUS), Dr Sachin Jangam (M3TC), Prof. Chung Lim Law ( Nottingham University, KL. Malaysia) and Prof. S. Devahastin (KMUTT, Thailand). Interestingly all three co-lecturers were mentored by Prof. Mujumdar during their doctoral studies in the field of drying. Lecture Notes in the form of handouts of the Powerpoint slides can be downloaded freely at http://serve.me.nus.edu.sg/arun/Mass_transport.html here. Click here for some photos from the workshop.

3. Prof. Mujumdar has joined the the Editorial Board of Journal of Food Chemistry and Nutrition: An Open Access International Journal for 2 years beginning February 15, 2013.

January 25, 2013

1. Following is a poster from Prof Wu Zhonghua of Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin, China. It depicts the long history of close connection between various universities and industries in China and Prof. Mujumdar while he was at McGill University, Canada and after mid-2000 when he joined NUS, Singapore. The cooperation started in 1984 with a seven day intensive course on Industrial Drying: Principles & Practice.- at the invitation of the Ministry of Light Industry, China. The course was held at the Tianjin Institute of Light Industry later renamed Tianjin University of Science & Technology- one of 17 universities located in Tianjin. Prof. Mujumdar was the prime mover for compilation of the first major handbook in drying technology almost completely written in China by local experts. He was the Advisory Editor and author of several chapters that appeared in this book ,already in second edition.
   
   
2. Dr. Sakamon Devahastin and Dr Law Chung Lim are amongst the Guest Faculty of the Workshop on Industrial Drying being held under M3TC auspices on January 26, 2013.

January 21, 2013

1. Prof. Mujumdar was a Keynote Speaker at the First International NIFTEM Conference held in New Delhi, January 10-11, 2013.

2. Congratulations to Hafiiz Osman who has submitted his final revised M Eng thesis to NUS today.

3. Prof. Mujumdar is a finalist in the competitive Award from Jiangsu Province for contribution to science and technology. The presentation will be made by the Governor of Jiangsu Province sometime in February 2013.

4. Following is the latest statistics on journal publications from TPR Group. Note that it does not include books, book chapters, proceedings papers as well as M3TC Technical reports and e-books which can be freely downloaded from our sites. The output is certainly exemplary and all members of the group deserve to be complemented for their productivity.
   
   Date archived: January 21, 2013
   Dr Sachin Jangam, NUS, Singapore
   
   Total no of papers published - 488
   Total no of citations - 5942
   h-index - 35
   Highest cited paper - no of citations 415
   Wang, X.-Q., Mujumdar, A.S. Heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids: a review. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 2007, 46 (1) , pp. 1-19

January 07, 2013

1. Singapore's news weekly Tabla published a detailed article on Prof. Mujumdar and his watercoloring hobby to de-stress. Please visit www.tabla.com.sg and look at pages 7-8 of Dec 21 issue.

2. Prof Mujumdar visited Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in connection with coal drying project and lab tests to obtain drying kinetics needed for modeling effort at M3TC.

3. Dr Wang Xiangqi of Citics in Shanghai visited M3TC in December. Dr Wang did his PhD here under Prof Mujumdar, then worked with M3TC and GE Research in Shanghai.

4. TPR has had a productive year. Relevant stats will be posted soon. Congrats to all.

5. Work has begun on 4th edition of the Handbook with some 10 new chapters.

January 04, 2013

1. Prof. Mujumdar is a Member of the Advisory Committee for the 11th International Conference on Mining, Materials and Petroleum Engineering, and the 7th International Conference on Earth Resources Technology to be held on 11-13 November, 2013 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

December 24, 2012

1. A short article about Prof. Mujumdar is published in Tabla - a weekly magazine. Visit http://www.tabla.com.sg/epaper/fvxp/fvxlaunch.php?param=2012-12-21 to read the article.

December 10, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar received his second Doctor Honoris Causa on November 30, 2012 from University of Lyon1, Lyon, France. For some photographs from the event please visit http://www.arunmujumdar.com/photos_2012.htm.

2. Please visit www.m3tc.sg for the 10th year-end Newsletter of M3TC for more details about the Award ceremony at IDS2012 in Xiamen, China as well as Prof. Mujumdar's visit to TU Delft Process Technology Institute, The Netherlands.

November 26, 2012

1. A half day workshop on "Industrial Drying: Principles and Practice" will be held on January, 26, 2013. (for more details click here).

08:30-08:45	Registration
08:45-09:45	Introduction, fundamentals, design strategy, classification & selection of dryers	Prof A.S. Mujumdar	Minerals, Metals, and Materials Technology Centre (M3TC), NUS
09:45-10:15	Energy saving strategies for industrial dryers	Dr. Chung Lim Law	University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus
10:15-10:30	Tea/Coffee Break
10:30-11:30	Industrial drying practice: Coal, biotech and pharmaceuticals	Prof A.S. Mujumdar / Dr. Sachin Jangam	Minerals, Metals, and Materials Technology Centre (M3TC), NUS
11:30-12:30	Recent developments and R&D opportunities in drying	Prof. A.S. Mujumdar / Dr. Sakamon Devahastin	M3TC, NUS / King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
12:30-13:00	Closing/Open Forum

November 18, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar was presented Lifetime Achievement Award at IDS2012 held very successfully in Xiamen, China last week. This was 18th in a widely acclaimed series started by Prof.Mujumdar at McGill University in 1978. IDS spawned numerous other major conference series devoted to Drying R&D. Drying Technology Journal also emerged as an off-shoot after three successful IDSs in 1978, 1980 and 1982. (To view the cetificate click here).

2. Prof. Mujumdar Medal for Outstanding Mentorship and Excellence in Sustained Drying R&D was given to Professor Emeritus R. B. Keey of University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Prof. Keey's pioneering and outstanding contribution to drying rseearch are well known globally. A number of his PhD students have become major contributors to Drying R&D- a key requirement that makes very few around the world eligible for the Medal-initiated by Prof. Guohua Chen and colleagues/associated at ADC2007 held in Hong Kong. (click here to view selected IDS2012 photos)

3. Prof. Mujumdar will receive Doctor Honoris Causa from University of Lyon1 in France on November 30, 2012.

November 11, 2012

1. The following statistics on contributors to Drying were obtained from Scopus on November 11, 2012
   
   Top 5 contributors in the World to Drying Technology Journal
   Arun S Mujumdar, Singapore (152)
   Tim Langrish, Australia (46)
   S Soponronnarit,Thailand (41)
   Z Maroulis  Greece(41)
   T Kudra, Canada (31)
   
   To 5 contributors in the World to Drying  field- all archival journals (using drying as a keyword)
   Arun S Mujumdar (266)
   Tim Langrish (109)
   S Soponronnarit (113)
   GSV Raghavan  Canada(99)
   Sokhansanj, S. Canada (90)

2. Prof. Mujumdar is appointed as Adjunct Professor in Bioresources Engineering at McGill University, Montreal, Canada

3. Prof. Mujumdar has initiated processing for 4th Enhanced Edition of the widely accclaimed "Bible of Drying" and "Drying Consultant on the Desk"- Handbook of Industrial Drying, CRC Press. It is scheduled to be completed by July 2013.

4. The 5th and final volume of the Modern Drying Technology set is being finalized. 5. The 30th anniversary volume of Drying Technology Journal is now complete.

5. M3TC will hold a workshop on Industrial Drying Technology: Principles and Practice on January 26, 2013. It is free and open to academics and industry. Click here for details.

November 05, 2012

1. M3TC Considers R&D Consortia
   
   In order to make R&D truly cost-effective and benefit from the high quality engineering talent of the Faculty of Engineering of NUS available to industry through M3TC, M3TC plans to develop one or more R&D consortia. The concept is simple: M3TC will propose an R&D program and seek a limited number of industry partners on cost-sharing basis. This will reduce the cost to each member considerably. Details are being worked out. Currently we propose consortia in one of more of the following themes where M3TC has recognized expertise:
   
   • Low rank coal upgrading
   • Biomining
   • Water pollution control in mining
   
   Other themes may also be considered. Interested industry personnel are invited to contact Dr Karthik at mpekarth@nus.edu.sg or Professor Mujumdar at mpeasm@nus.edu.sg. Please visit www.m3tc.sg for detailed information about M3TC.                                             .

October 23, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar will present a short talk at IDS2012 Opening Ceremony in Xiamen next month on "Historical Perspective of the IDS Series -The global journey" from 1978 to 2012. For PPT of this presentation click here.

2. M3TC has just published its 9th Newsletter in a remarkably valuable recording of its accomplishements in a relatively short period of time. These capsule summaries provide a quick look at areas covered by M3TC and its outcomes - both industry-relevant and academic. Visit  www.m3tc.sg . Drs Karthik and Jangam edit the series with direct input and guidance from Prof. Mujumdar.

3. Osman Hafiiz will soon submit his MEng thesis. An M3TC report covering his EDEM modleing work will be available shortly on www.m3tc.sg. 
   

October 15, 2012

1. TPR Group has following papers scheduled for presentation at IDS2012, Xiamen, China, November 11-16,2012
   
   1. NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF A SPOUTED BED USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)
   by: C.H. Zhang, L.X. Huang, P.J. Xie, F. You, A.S. Mujumdar
   
   2. ASSESSMENT OF MICROWAVE VACUUM SPOUTED DRYING OF STEM LETTUCE SLICES WITH REGARD TO PRODUCT QUALITY
   W. Yuchuan, Z. Min, A. S. Mujumdar, K. J. Mothibea, S.M Roknul Azama
   
   3. IMMERSION FRYING DRYING OF SEWAGE SLUDGE USING WASTE COOKING OIL
   Z. H. Wu, J. Zhang, Z.Y. Li, A.S. Mujumdar
   
   4. ASPECTS OF DRYING TECHNOLOGIES FOR LOW RANK COAL
   S.V. Jangam and A.S. Mujumdar
   
   Additionally, Prof. Mujumdar will present a short historical perspective of the IDS series he started in 1978 at McGill University, Canada.

2. M3TC's latest newsletter - 8th in the series- is now available for free download at www.m3tc.sg .

3. There is a tentative plan to hold a day long workshop in January 2013 on Industrial Drying with emphasis on new developments and applications in the foods, pharmaceutical, biotech and energy sectors.

4. Following are latest statistics on research collaboration between TPR and Jiangnan University. It shows how effective research collaboration can be. It resulted in a significant research grant from Pepsico USA to Jiangnan University and some 10 PhD theses as well. Patents emerging from the effort are being applied in industry in China. Overall a highly productive effort.

   Data accessed October 12, 2012
   
   No of articles with Professor Min Zhang, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. (in peer reviewed journals) - 55

   Total number of citations - 556

   Average citation per paper - 10.11
   
   h-index - 15

   Most cited paper - cited by 118
   
   Zhang, M., Tang, J., Mujumdar, A.S., Wang, S. Trends in microwave-related drying of fruits and vegetables. Trends in Food Science and Technology 2006, 17(10), 524-534.

   Additionally, there are joint book chapters and conference papers which are not counted in the above statistics.

September 24, 2012

1. Latest SCOPUS statistics obtained by Dr Karthik on 20.09.2012 on publications from Prof. Mujumdar's Group are as follows. Note that the total number includes editorials, books reviews, conference reports etc which amount to over 150. Average citations per paper should be corrected accordingly. TPR Group has been productive in quantity as well as quality.
   
   Current h index: 34
   Total no of articles till date: 601
   Total no of citations: 5854
   Cites from 2008 onward to all papers: 3772
   Average citations per paper: 9.74
   Most cited paper - 362 citations
   Wang X. and Mujumdar, A.S. Heat transfer characteristics of nano-fluids: A Review, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 2007, 46(1), 1-19.
   
   Nanofluids heat transfer continues to draw serious attention of researchers around the world.

2. Readers interested in a short write-up linking quality of publications with quality may click here for a draft editorial on the theme. Studies show that there is a positive correlation between how prolific a researcher is in his/her productivity and the impact or quality of his/her work. This is also found to be valid empirically for patents.

3. The entire management team of M3TC is invited for an industry-focused "Invitation-only" International Symposium on Niobium –Based Steels and Alloys to be held in Singapore November 5-7, 2012.

4. Prof. Mujumdar is a Plenary Speaker at PharmaTech 2012 Conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur, November 20-21. IDS2012 in Xiamen will be held during November 12-14, 2012.

5. The President of University of Lyon1, France has confirmed the formal conferral of the Doctor Honoris Causa degree in Lyon on November 30, 2012.

6. Sachin Jangam give a presentation on M3TC/NUS and his work on LRC Upgrading at ICT, Mumbai September 24, 2012. Tests are underway at ICT to generate drying kinetic data for modeling of moving bed and vibrated bed as well as screw conveyor drying of LRC to estimate approximate size of different dryers for same duty.

September 17, 2012

1. Congratulations to Karthik Somasundaram for successfully defending his PhD thesis on September 14th 2012 ! Great job, Karthik!

2. Sachin will present a seminar giving overview of M3TC/NUS/TPR to the chemical enginrring department of Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai - top ChE department of India. He will also obtain drying kinetic data on LRC coal samples needed for our math modeling effort to size and compare different dryer types. We have collaboration with TPR member Prof. B N Thorat of ICT.

3. Dr Karun Malhotra, Chief Technology Officer of Murata Electronics, Kyoto is expected to visit M3TC and give a talk on December 6th. Mark your calendar. He was Prof. Mujumdar's PhD student at McGill University, Canada who did his PhD jointly with Kyoto University.

4. IDS2012 in Xiamen has attracted over 300 papers.

5. Dr Agus Sasmito is to be complimented for being invited to write a book for a major publisher. Well done, Agus! He is already productive at Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.

6. Prof. Mujumdar will be conferred the Doctor Honoris Causa degree by University of Lyon 1 on November 30, 2012 at a function in Lyon. He will attend International Program Committee meeting of the well known Process Technology Centre of Delft University, The Netherlands. The Centre has some 13 Chairs and over 175 PhD students with very significant industry participation.

7. TPR has had five journal papers accepted in past two weeks. We also reviewed some 10 papers for different journals in same period.

8. Congratulations to Dr Suna Polat who has started a consulting firm specializing in Open Innovation, called Winnovate1. Do subscribe to her blog. She held a senior possition at P&G in Cincinnati, OH., USA in Innovation. All the best, Suna. I am proud to count her amongst my mentees; she did her PhD at McGill.

9. The Clean Coal technology Workshop held by M3TC last week was a huge success with over 80% of participants from industry. Please visit www.m3tc.sg for an e-book of the proceedings of this valuable workshop

September 06, 2012

1. A worshop on Clean Coal Technologies- New Developments was held seccesfully on September 4th with Prof Y Itaya of Gifu University, Japan as Principal Lecturer. Prof Wang (ChBE), Prof Bala ( M3TC), Dr Lease (M3TC) and Dr Jangam (M3TC) presented various aspects of CCTs. Many thanks to these speakers for their great effort. Prof Mujumdar introduced speakers and also NUS as well as M3TC's, scope, achievements, vision and operations. Over 35 attendees participated- a majority from industry in Singapore, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Hong Kong. The response from participants was very positive with Mr Rao of India making a Thank You presentation appreciating the effort of all speakers and M3TC.
   Click here for the program of the workshop.
   Click here for a group photo of participants (which does not  include all participants as some has to leave before end of the session).
   M3TC hopes  to organize a follow up workshop covering additional themes.
   Interested parties can download the proceedings of the workshop from the website  www.m3tc.sg until September 30, 2012.
   

September 04, 2012

1. A Workshop on Clean Coal Technology was held very successfully on September 4, 2012. The total number of participants exceeded with a majority from outside NUS academic community. Seven participants came from India and Indonesia. The handouts provided to attendees will be made available to external parties on the website of M3TC www.m3tc.sg for a period of 4 weeks. Prof. Y. Itaya of Gifu University, Japan, was one of the main speakers. He is spending this week with M3TC as Visiting Professor.

2. M3TC had valuable meeting on September 1, 2012 with Mr Jon Coates,Chief Geologist of BHP Billiton on areas of interest to his company and R&D projects within M3TC.

3. Dr Jangam has just checked latest publication statistics for Prof. Mujumdar. They are as follows: Number of papers published in Drying Technology Journal – 194 with 2315 citations. Total number of papers on drying- 287 which attracted 3418 citations. Total number of papers on Scopus database covering all themes is 512 with 5643 citations. Overall TPR Group has been productive and making an impact. For engineering papers ,especially for a specialized area, these metrics are considered very high.

4. Karthik Somasundaram will defend his PhD thesis on September 14, 2012.

5. A new e-book on Solar Drying has been uploaded on our e-books section. Please look it up. Xu Peng has updated the Math Modeling book which now appears as second edition. It includes a new chapter on radiation heat transfer by Prof. Y. Itaya. An e-book on Fluidization Engineering edited by Dr Maria Laura Passos is in final stages of editorial processing.

6. Work on 4th edition of Handbook of Industrial Drying has begun. An invited paper on Dryers for Particulate Solids for KONE journal has been accepted for publication ( DJ Lee, S Jangam and ASM). Several journal papers have been accepted for publication in last one month.

August 21, 2012

1. The 30th anniversary issue of Drying Technology Journal has just come out. It is cited by highly reputed researchers in drying and the papers are by Who's Who in Drying. The issue is put together to honor Prof. Mujumdar who is the Editor-in-Chief. Click here for the Guest Editorial and a tribute written by Prof. C. Strumillo.

2. Jundika officially received his PhD during NUS Commencement 2012. Congratulations Dr. Jundika!

August 13, 2012

1. Workshop on "Principles and Modeling of Underground Mine Ventilation Systems" was held successfully at NUS on August 3, 2012. 20 participants attended the workshop. Click here for the proceedings of the workshop.

2. Click here to read the short article on "The art of drying and de-stressing" about Prof. Mujumdar's watercolors published in the August issue of Connections - NUS Faculty of Engineering newsletter.

3. An e-book on solar drying is under editing by Dr. Sachin and Prof. Mujumdar and will be released soon.

July 17, 2012

1. Following are some recent statistics for Prof Arun's publications
   
   From Scopus (Accessed on July 15, 2012)
   Papers published since 2009 - present: 107
   Citations to these 107 paper till date: 360
   
   Overall statistics on publications of TPR (with Prof. Mujumdar as co-author or author) Only ISI journal papers. Excludes books, conference proceedings etc.)
   Current h index: 32
   Total no of articles till date: 521
   Total no of citations: 5680
   Cites from 2008 onward to all papers: 3602
   Average citations per paper: 10.9
   Most cited paper - 339 citations
   Wang X. and Mujumdar, A.S. Heat transfer characteristics of nano-fluids: A Review, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 2007, 46(1), 1-19.

2. M3TC will hold a workshop on Underground Mine Ventilation on August 3, 2012. It is free and open to academics and industry. Details on www.m3tc.sg .

3. Professor Y. Itaya of Gifu University ( formerly of Nagoya University) will visit M3TC in September. A workshop on Clean Coal Technology will be organized during his stay. Details will be available at www.m3tc.sg .

4. Prof. D J lee (NTU, Taipei) and Prof Mujumdar were joint authors of a Plenary Lecture at Asian Particle Technology Conference (APT-5) held at NUS in July 2012. Over 220 participants from 23 countries participated in a high quality program. Dr Sachin Jangam made a presentation on our DEM work on screw conveyor heat transfer.

5. IDS 2012 will be held in Xiamen in November. Manuscript deadline is July 23, 2012.

6. 30th Anniversary issue of Drying Technology is now in press. It signals a long and hard journey of the journal which helped establish the new interdisciplinary R&D area of Drying Technology. With energy crunch and concerns over global climate change interest in Drying R&D continues to rise globally thanks to the IDS and its sister conference series and the journal and books like the Handbook of Industrial drying and series such as Advances in Drying and Modern Drying Technology.

7. TPR is contributing 2 chapters to vol 5 (final vol) of Modern Drying Technology and an invited article on Advances in Drying for KONA (Japan).

8. Congratulations to Dr Jundika Kurnia on receiving his PhD diploma. Prof. Mujumdar was on the platform party at NUS ME Commencement on July 12th where Jundika received his diploma.

9. Hearty congratulations to the proud parents; Sachin and Suchitra became proud parents of a baby boy in June 2012!

10. Second edition of Professional Profile of Professor Arun S Mujumdar was compiled by Dr Sachin Jangam. It can be accessed by clicking here. Thank you, Sachin!

July 09, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar was recognised with a plaque and a certificate for "Excellent Achievements in Transport Phenomena R&D and Mentorship of Young Researchers Worldwide" at the International Conference on Food Processing in KL, June 2012. Click here for the award certificate.

2. Dr Sachin Jangam was a keynote speaker and also recipient of an award at the International Conference on Food Processing in KL, June 2012. Click here for the award certificate.

3. Prof. Mujumdar coauthored a Plenary Lecture  with Prof. T J Lee of NTU, Taipei, Taiwan,at Asian Particle Technology (APT5) conference held at NUS July 2-5, 2012.

4. Dr T Tuncal of Department of Environmental Engineering, Corlu Engineering Faculty, Namik Kemal University, Turkey has ben promoted to associate Professsorship. Congrats Dr Tuncal.

June 25, 2012

1. Please visit http://www.simprotek.com which provides new information on the simulation software for flowsheets involving heat, mass and momentum transfer. There are new updates and there will be many more extensions in the coming years. Dr ZhenXiang Gong did his PhD under the guidance of Professor Mujumdar at McGill University, Montreal, Canada in mid-nineties.

2. Dr. Suna Polat has taken early retirement from Procter& Gamble Technical Center’s famed Innovation division where she was associate Director. She has established a consulting firm Winnovate1 in Cincinnati, Oh. USA ,which will assist corporations develop and benefit from Open Innovation strategies which P&G is world famous for. All the best to you, Suna, from the TPR network.

3. Some latest citation counts for Prof. Mujumdar, thanks to Sachin. Google Scholar gives 1040 as the number of published documents ( inclusive of boo chapters, editorials, book reviews etc) and  10,500+ citations.  ISI and Scopus give the published articles as 485 and 505 with corresponding citation numbers of 5270 and 5375, respectively . The h index is 34 for ISI and 33 for Scopus. Congratulations to all members of TPR for their exceptional productivity!

4. Prof. Mujumdar has been named to the Scientific/Organizing Committee of the World Mining Conference (WMC) to be held in Montreal in August 2013. M3TC will present 2-3 papers in the sessions dealing with Underground Mine Ventilation- a theme of major interest to mining industry worldwide due to energy, environmental and safety aspects.

5. Tongwei passed her Qualifying examination to proceed towards her PhD. Congratulations, Tongwei.

6. Dr Sachin Jangam is congratulated on being prod father of a baby boy on June 21st 2012. All the best!

7. ADC2011 (2nd issue) is now ready. In fact all 16 issues of Drying Technology journal are now ready. As a result of Journal Matthew Effect (see my upcoming editorial on the subject) our manuscript flow has been rising with the rise in impact factor which is now above 2.0 for 2011 placing the journal at the 17th rank amongst 122 ME journals- a remarkable achievement for a technology journal meeting both academic and industrial needs.

8. Hafiiz Osman will be joining the private sector from August 2nd 2012. He will complete his MEng (part time) sometime this year. Best wishes, Hafiiz!

9. Xu Peng is working on second volume of the e-book Mathematical Modeling of Transport Processes. A number of TPR members will be authors for the second volume as well.

10. Prof. Zhonghua Wu presented two seminars last week for M3TC. The themes of sludge drying and pulse combustion are both of keen interest to M3TC and TPR Group. We hope to develop active cooperation in this area.

11. A limited supply of hard copies of two softcover books edited by Sachin Jangam are available on request till the supply lasts. They are: Perspectives on R&D, Globalization and Innovation  and Professional Profile of Prof A.S. Mujumdar.

June 20, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar and Dr. Sachin Jangam had Keynote presentations at the 2nd Int. Symp. on Processing and Drying of Foods held successfully at University of Nottingham, Malaysia.

2. Dr. Sachin Jangam was presented with "Outstanding Young Researcher Award" and Prof. Mujumdar was recognised with a plaque for " Excellent Achievements in Transport Phenomena R&D and Mentorship of Young Researchers Worldwide". Click here for image of the award.

3. Associate Prof. Sakamon Devahastin has been awarded the most prestigeous Outstanding Researcher Award in Thailand. Details to follow. Hearty congrats to Sakamon!

4. Special 30th Anniversary issues of Drying Technology journal are ready for publication.

5. Prof. Mujumdar has reviewed all 10 papers from Middle East Drying Conference pre-selected by the organizing committee. After peer review some of these papers will appear in Drying Technology. The impact factor for the journal in 2011 has crossed the 2.0 mark.

6. Prof. Z. Wu presented a keynote lecture in KL at the ICDFVF. He will present two seminars under M3TC sponsorship this week.

May 29, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar participated in the Opening ceremony as well as Closing session at the 13th Geominetech Conference held in Bhubaneshwar, India in May 2012. He also presented an invited paper on M3TC as a Model for Academia-Industry Cooperation in R&D.

2. Prof. Mujumdar met with Prof. G. D. Yadav, Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, which recently received Elite status from the Govt. of Maharashtra. He also had an informal chat with members of the Advanced Drying Laboratory at ICT.

3. Prof. Mujumdar has been named to the International Programme Committee of the Technical University of Delft Institute for Process Technology, The Netherlands, which consists of eminent internationally recognized academics as well as senior industrial R&D representatives. This Institute has over 175 PhD students.

4. IDS2012 has attracted over 350 abstracts. It will be held in Xiamen, China in November 2012.

5. Drying Technology journal has broken a record and attained impact factor for 2011 which is about 2.1. As expected the manuscript flow has increased significantly as well.

6. Work has started on a 56-chapter 4th edition of the Handbook of Industrial Drying (CRC Press) to be completed by mid-2013.

7. Work on 2 chapters for the 5th and last volume of the series Modern Drying Technology (VCH-Wiley) is in full swing.

8. Several new e-books are under preparation.

9. Tong Wei will defend her PhD proposal this week.

May 22, 2012

1. Continuation of Professor Arun Mujumdar as a Honorary Distinguished Platinum Jubilee Professor at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, India.
   Click here for more details. ICT is an autonomous university (similar to IITs) and has recently received Elite status from the State Government. Its Chemical Engineering ranks first amongst al in India and in research output measured as publications in ISI journals it is ranks 3-4 in the world. Its alumni include billionaires Mukesh Ambani and  Dr Reddy as well as globally recognized academics like Prof. M.M. Sharma, Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Prof. J. B. Joshi et al.
   Click here to view Prof Arun's new name card.
   

2. Dr. Zdzslaw Pakowski has been selected to Professorship  at Lodz Technical University, Poland. The position is awarded by the President of Poland. A highly deserved major honor indeed.
   Hearty congratulations!

3. Dr. Sakamon Devahastin is named Associate Dean (Research) at KMUTT, Thonburi, Thailand.
   Congratulations, Sakamon!
   
   

May 10, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar will give a Keynote Lecture about M3TC at the 12th Geo-mining Conference to be held May 11-12, 2012 in Bhubaneshwar, India. He will also present a technical paper providing an overview of Low Rank Coal Upgrading jointly authored with Sachin Jangam. M3TC is a co-sponsor of this international conference.

2. Prof. Mujumdar will visit Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai to discuss ongoing collaborative projects and develop new projects of mutual interest for M3TC in the energy and environmental areas. He will also discuss low rank coal upgrading technologies with senior technical and management staff of Tata Power Co. Head Office in Mumbai. He will return to Singapore on May 19th.

3. Dr Agus has just completed a paper for publication on use of PCM cooling technology for thermal management of fuel cell stacks in cold environment. This is part of TPR collaboration with Prof. Tariq Shamim of Masdar Institute of Technology based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

4. Pulsed Opposing Jets is the main theme of cooperation of a new joint research project initiated by a Master's student in Dr. M. Alipour's laboratory in Tehran, Iran. Prof. Alipour was Prof. Mujumdar's PhD student at McGill University, Montreal, Canada , where he modeled impinging and opposing turbulent jet flows. Associate Prof. Xu Peng is also actively pursuing joint cooperation in multiple pulsed impinging and opposing jet area. The idea is to find ways of enhancing impinging jet heat transfer rates. Dr Xu Peng was a Visiting PhD student in TPR Group at NUS for a period of two years with China Government support.

May 3, 2012 (A bit of good news for TPR)

1. Dr Muthuswamy Karthikeyan ( Karthi) has been promoted to Vice President by Surbana in Singapore.  Karthi ,along with Dr Joshua and Prof. Mujumdar, drafted the proposal document leading to M3TC.

2. Dr Gong Zhenxiang has been promoted to Staff Engineer by his company in California which makes biomedical devices. Z-X was Prof. Mujumdar’s PhD student at McGill University.

3. Dr. Peng Xu has been promoted to Associate Professor at China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China.

4. Dr Poh Hee Joo has been promoted to a higher rank as Scientist at IHPC.

   Hearty Congratulations to all from all members of TPR Group. Well done!

5. Dr. Peng Xu is now writing a book entitled "Physical Transport in Fractal Porous Media", with Prof. Boming Yu in Huazhong University of Science and Technology as co-author.

April 28, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar and Dr. Lease of M3TC participated in an by-invitation-only International Symposium on Sustainable Use of Low Rank Coals held last week in Melbourne, Australia. The event was attended by senior industry personnel and R&D/academics from some 20 countries. It was an extremely valuable event for M3TC which has several key projects related to low rank coal-from upgrade to gasification to value-addition.

2. Prof. Mujumdar visited Monash University in Clayton, Victoria where he met with the HoD of Chemical engineering Department, Dean of Engineering as well as the Chancellor of the University and discussed various matters of mutual interest in R&D, climate change, engineering education and international cooperation. This was followed by a visit to CSIRO Labs in Clayton where Prof. Mujumdar made a presentation on M3TC and ongoing R&D projects. There are numerous areas of mutual interest between M3TC and Monash University academics as well as CSIRO researchers. We shall explore this potential further in coming months.

3. The highlight of Prof. Mujumdar's visit to Monash University was the opportunity to have extended and highly stimulating discussions with his close friend from undergraduate days at ICT, Mumbai, Dr R A Mashelkar-about innovation, education of engineers and R&D in India in particular and globally in general. He received an autographed copy of his latest book: "Reinventing India" –which was fascinating enough to be read fully over the long haul flight from Melbourne to Changi! This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in learning about innovation, IP, More for Less for Many philosophy of innovation etc. RAM is indeed an incredibly accomplished yet humble man – an exceptional role model indeed!

4. Prof. Mujumdar has been named to the International Program Committee (IPC) of a world class Research centre in Delft, The Netherlands. Delft University of Technology has recently established the TU Delft Process Technology Institute (DPTI). The Institute comprises 14 full-time Chairs with more than 150 PhD students in three Departments (Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Process & Energy) and will focus in the coming years on the multidisciplinary research in the areas of Biochemical Process Engineering, Process Intensification and Process Technology for Advanced Materials.
   For up-to-date information please visit the DPTI website at www.process.tudelft.nl.

5. Prof. Mujumdar will present a Keynote address on M3TC and also a research paper on LRC Drying Technologies at the Indian Mining Conference to be held in May in Bhubaneshar, India during May 2012.

6. A TPR member of long standing, Dr Chung Lim Law has been elevated to the rank of Full Professor by University of Nottingham, KL, Malaysia. Hearty congratulations to CL from all TPR members.

7. Assoc. Prof. Sakamon Devahastin of KMUTT (Prof. Mujumdar's last but one PhD student at McGill) has authored a book in Thai on Drying of Foods & Biomaterials. It came off the press last month. Hearty congratulations, Sakamon!.

8. Congratulations to Jundika Kurnia on becoming a parent with the arrival of a baby girl.

9. Another bit of good news: Hafiiz Osman is now proud father of a healthy baby boy born last week. Congratulations to the happy parents from all TPR members.

April 14, 2012

1. Congratulations and very best wishes from TPR Group to Professor Guohua Chen who assumed Headship of the Chemical Engineering Department at HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong in February 2012. We are sure the already reputed department will scale new heights under Prof. Chen's stewardship.

2. Congratulations to Dr. and Mrs. Jundika Kurnia on the arrival of their first baby girl on March 29, 2012.

3. M3TC is planning a Workshop on Underground Mine Ventilation in early August 2012 with Dr Jundika, Dr Poh Hee Joo( IHPC) and Dr Erik Birgersson as main lecturers.

4. Prof. Wu Zhonghua of Tianjin University of Light Industry will visit M3TC/NUS in June and present two seminars on pulse combustion and PC drying of sludge. There is strong potential for future collaboration between TUST and TPR members.

5. Drying Technology Journal has an impact factor exceeding 2.0 .Our thanks to all referees, authors and editorial team members. It is a massive team effort of dedicated professionals and researchers!

6. IDS2012 reports receipt of over 350 abstracts for the conference in November 2012.

April 05, 2012

1. Associate Prof. Sakamon Devahastin's book on Drying of Foods has just come off the press in Thai language. He did his PhD with Prof. Mujumdar at McGill University. He earlier edited a book in food engineering which appeared two years ago. Congrats Sakamon from TPR Group! Click here to view the colorful cover of this book.

2. Prof. Mujumdar delivered a keynote lecture at IFET2012 conference held in Bangkok end of March 2012. Dr. Sakamon developed an outstanding technical program with internationally recognized experts. The refereed proceedings will likley be available in e-book format soon.

3. Three e-book projects are underway currently. One on Solar Energy will appear in the near future.

4. Drying Technology journal is now in 30th year of continuous publication with Prof. Mujumdar associated with it from Day 1. He took over from Founding Editor Dr. Carl W. Hall as Editor-in-Chief in 1988. Its impact factor for 2011 is estimated at 2.1 which places it among top 15 in mechanical engineering journals.

5. Dr. Agus Sasmito has joined Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi. He is continuing as an active member of TPR. Dr. Jundika Kurnia has joined M3TC as Research Fellow in the Underground Mine Ventilation area.

6. Prof. Mujumdar initiated a new Research Project Based Learning (RPBL) method for teaching Mass Transport at postgraduate level. Two term paper projects carried out by groups of 2 students have now appeared in two major journals viz. Chemical Engineering Science and Chemical Engineering & Processing. Well done to all involved in this successful experiment.

7. Prof. Mujumdar will present a seminar on M3TC at CSIRO Clayton Laboratories in Australia in mid April 2012. Click here for the announcement.

March 12, 2012

1. Prof. Mujumdar is selected as one of the Top 100 Scientists in the World in 2012 by the International Biographical Centre. Click here for the nomination letter.

2. Drying Technology - An International Journal published by Taylor & Francis is celebrating its 30th year of publication with an impact factor exceeding 2.0 and ranking within Top 15 Mechanical Engineering journals. The cover of the print edition is transformed to GREEN reflecting the need to convert all energy-intensive drying technologies to high level of efficiency and lower carbon footprints. The journal publishes 16 issues per annum with Prof. Mujumdar as Editor-in-Chief. Dr Sakamon Devahastin, Dr. Sachin Jangam, Prof. Zhonghua Wu and Prof. Lixin Huang- all mentees of Prof. Mujumdar- are part of the editorial team. Click here for the journal site.

3. Professor recommends http://www.ideaconnection.com/open-innovation-articles/00280-Understanding-Creativity-Making-the-Impossible-Po.html for those interested in creativity and innovation.

4. Professor Arun S. Mujumdar visited Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at the National Taiwan University of Science & Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, March 5-6, 2012 at the invitation of Dean D. J. Lee. He also visited Chemical Engineering Department at National Taiwan University. He presented a seminar on recent developments as well as R&D needs in Industrial Drying Technologies and provided an overview of challenges in going from lab scale concepts to industrial scale novel dryers.

5. Click here for a review of MEDC 2012 events in pictures.

March 01, 2012

1. Drying Technology journal has achieved Impact Factor in excess of 2 for 2011. Please view the revamped website at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/LDRT

2. The First Middle East Drying Conference (MEDC2012) held in Ahwaz in February 2012 was a major success with 220 attendees and 100+ papers delivered from 7 countries. Interestingly about 120 of the participants were from industry unlike all other Drying and related conferences held around the world. Dr. Salem Banooni and Prof. Mostafa Alipour were the Principal Organizers of the event recommended by Prof. Mujumdar. Both Dr. Banooni and Prof. Alipour were advised by Prof. Mujumdar in their doctoral research. Congratulations!

3. Prof. Mujumdar will visit National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University of Science & Technology in Taipei in early March 2012.

4. Prof. Mujumdar recommends anyone interested in the future of Engineering Education to click the link below for a very thought-provoking article by Prof. Judson King of University of California, USA.
   http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/docs/ROPS.12.11.King.EngineeringEd.9.29.11.pdf
   Prof. King has worked extensively in freeze and spray drying areas and was a regular participant in the IDS series during the first decade of its start-up.

February 28, 2012

1. Dr. Mashelkar’s seminar on January 19th 2012 stressed the value of M(more) from less (L) for M(many) strategy for the emerging economies and gave many examples of MLM innovations including the famous Nano car by Tata Motors in India. Another MLM innovation for the emerging world can be found at the following link which shows how a “Solar Lamp” works . Great idea. It also reduces the carbon footprint! http://www.wimp.com/lightenup/

2. The following link gives valuable information about publishing in archival journals. Prof. Mujumdar recommends it highly to graduate students, research fellows. http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/trainingwebcasts?utm_source=ESJ001&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&bid=U495W4F:11CX6

3. Prof. Arun S. Mujumdar Visiting Fellowship was awarded to Prof. Sakamon Devahastin of King Mongkut's University of Technology. Click here to view the fellowship certificate.

February 13, 2012

1. CRC Press/ Taylor & Francis have invited Prof. Mujumdar to edit 4th edition of his Handbook of Industrial Drying. This 53 chapter handbook will likley see up to 60 chapters in its 4th edition as a result of nearly exponential growth in drying R&D around the world over the past two decades.

2. M3TC has published its 4th Newsletter which is available at www.m3tc.sg

3. Deadline for abstracts submission to IDS2012, Xiamen, China is fast approaching. Please submit your abstracts on line.
   

February 6, 2012

1. The fourth issue of M3TC Newsletter is now available and has a number of news items contributed by TPR Group. Please click http://www.m3tc.sg/newsletter.html for the latest newsletter as well as the earlier three. Please forward the link to your own contacts.

2. Karthik Somasundaram has joined M3TC as Business Development Officer. His task is to develop closer industry contacts and identify R&D projects involving industry-M3TC interaction. Welcome aboard, Karthik! He is expected to submit his PhD thesis in a few weeks.

3. Marjan and Tongwei are working on their PhD proposals which are to be completed within the next couple of months.

4. Dr Agus has joined Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi as a postdoctoral researcher. We wish him well in his new position. TPR will miss his active presence but we will remain in contact with him. Best wishes, Agus.

5. Work is proceeding well on three e-book projects: vol 4 of Food Dehydration, 2-vol set on Fluidization Engineering and one on Solar energy. All three are expected to appear in next 3-6 months.

6. IDS2012 will be held in Xiamen, China in November. Some 400 abstracts have been received by the organizers.

7. Professor Y. Itaya of Gifu University, Japan – formerly of Nagoya University - will visit M3TC the week of September 2nd 2012. He is an expert in clean coal technologies as well as bio-energy. He will present two 90-minute lectures on the following topics which are of great interest to some active M3TC projects as well as to faculty members and students interested in the energy sector. Mark your calendar and look for further details at www.m3tc.sg. All welcome.
   1) Upgrading of Low Rank Carbonaceous Resources: Advanced Dewatering and Gasification Technologies
   2) Advances in Clean Coal Technologies- Overview of Japanese Technologies

8. Professor Mujumdar, Honorary President of MEDC2012, February 2012, has sent a congratulatory message to the first Middle East Conference on Drying in Ahwaz, Iran, for the Opening Ceremony. Click here for the PowerPoint presentation which will appear in the formal MEDC proceedings (CD) along with a number of freely downloadable e-books on drying that TPR Group has edited over the years. Thanks are due to Sachin and Marjan ( for the Farsi translation embedded in the PPT) for putting together this presentation in a remarkable short time.

January 24, 2012

1. Happy Lunar New Year to all from TPR network! 2011 has been a highly productive year for TPR and M3TC with very significant research and service output.

2. Dr. R. A. Mashelkar , National Research Professor, India and President of Global Research Alliance, Australia gave an inspiring, illuminating and instructive 90-minute lecture to over 150 participants at NUS on January 19th. The theme focused on his MLM (More for less for more!) model of innovation. It is applicable to developing as well as developed nations. The key objective is to enhance access for the general global population- not just for some but for all. Click here for an introduction of Dr. R A Mashelkar and to view the poster of the talk, click here. Alumni of ICT, Mumbai hosted a lunch which was very well attended.

3. Vol 5 (final) of MDT (Modern Drying Technology) is now being prepared. We have 2 chapters being prepared for this series.

December 15, 2011

1. There will be a number of workshops and conferences in 2012 that TPR Group is going to be actively involved in.
   There is a Drying Conference to be held in Ahwaz, Iran. Dr. Xu Peng (Hangzhou) will present a poster paper there. A Food Processing Conference will be held in Bangkok in late March 2012 where Prof. Mujumdar will present a Keynote lecture. Vice President Li Jingai of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing has invited Prof. Mujumdar to visit them in May. He also has invitations from China Agri. University, Beijing and Tianjin University of Science and Technology in Tianjin to visit them. In June 2012 the follow up conference of 2011 on Food Processing will be held in KL, Malaysia. M3TC is planning a workshop in June 2012. IDS2012 will be held in Xiamen in November 2012. Prof. Mujumdar will be a keynote speaker at a Pharma conf in KL in November 2012. Busy year overall. Check conference links at this site for details. Visit www.m3tc.sg for M3TC events.

2. Dr Sachin Jangam is working on 2 issues of Drying Technology based on ADC2011 conference papers. These issues will be out in mid-2012. First 4 issues of LDRT are already complete ahead of schedule.

3. Dr Jangam and Dr Sasmito were guest speakers at a Mine Managers Show Asia2011 in Bali last week.

4. Prof. Mujumdar will be in India in latter half and first half of January 2012. There will be limited internet access during this period. During this visit, Professor Mujumdar will give a talk at ICT, Mumbai, India.

5. Marjan Shaker has successfully completed her PhD QE on Dec 8, 2011. Congratulations Marjan
   

   HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR VISITORS! (Click here to download the New Year card)

November 28, 2011

1. Volume 4 of Modern Drying Technology, Wiley-VCH, is now published. Sachin Jangam and A S Mujumdar have a chapter on heat pump-assisted drying in this volume.

2. Statistics related to publications and citations thereto have been compiled by Sachin for the TPR group. Click here for details.

3. Drying Technology journal will be in 30 years of publication in 2012. Prof. Mujumdar has been actively involved with it since its inception in 1982. He has been the Editor-in-Chief since 1988. Its impact factor is estimated to exceed 2 in 2011.

November 14, 2011

1. Prof. Mujumdar is recovering from dengue and hence there will be delay in responding to e-mails and review requests. He will not be able to accept any requests for reviews over the next four weeks.

2. Volume 4 of Modern Drying Technology ( VCH-Wiley) has just been pubilshed. It is part of a 5-volume set edited by Prof. E. Tsotsas and Prof. A.S.Mujumdar.

October 23, 2011

1. Dr Sachin Jangam presented a seminar on Upgrading of Low Rank Coal on October 21, 2011. It was very well attended by industry personnel and representatives from the commercial sector. The seminar presented an overview of diverse technologies for coal upgrading by thermal dehydration as well as pelletizing and high pressure water treatment. Moisture re-absorption was identified as a key issue during storage and transportation over long distances.
   M3TC would be interested to hear from interested industrial establishments to look into this technological problem of great importance. Prof. Mujumdar gave a short overview of M3TC activities and welcomed industry partnership to tackle problems of industry interest.

2. Volume 4 of Modern Drying Technology (VCH-Wiley, Germany) is in press and should be published soon.

3. Several book chapters by TPR members have been completed and are due for publication soon.

4. Volume 29 of Drying Technology (LDRT) (16 issues) is complete. In fact No. 2 issue of volume 30 (2012) is already available on-line. The journal will celebrate its three decades of successful journey with a series of invited reviews as well as special issues with prominent Guest Editors. It will also contain a series of guest editorials documenting the history of the journals well as some useful statistical analysis of journal publications.

October 3, 2011

1. One Day Workshop on Industrial Drying: Principles and Practice was held successfully at NUS on October 1, 2011. Over ninety participants were present.
   Aside from graduate students from NUS ME department, a number of faculty members and graduate students from Malaysia and Indonesia attended this event. Notes of this workshop given by 6 lecturers are available under e-books section of this website. M3TC sponsored this event. For photos please look up photo Gallery of this website (2011).

September 26, 2011

1. Prof.Mujumdar and Dr. Sachin Jangam attended ADC2011- 7th Asia-Paciic Drying Conference,in Tianjin September 18-21, 2011. With over 210 attendees from 30 countries and some 160 papers presented this was the largest ADC to date. The next one will be held at the Convention Centre in KL,Malaysia in 2013. IDS2012 will be held in Xiamen in November 2012.

2. Prof. Mujumdar presented an opening speech and later a plenary lecture. Academician Li of Chinese Academy of Science ,Beijng ,presented the second plenary lecture. Dy.Mayor of Tianjin and President of Tianjin University of Science and Technology opened the event. The event was covered extensively by local news media both TV and newpapers. See links below for reports including a video clip in Chinese. The links of the news reports are as follows
   http://news.tust.edu.cn/kdxw/26577.htm
   http://news.tust.edu.cn/kdxw/26579.htm
   http://news.tust.edu.cn/spxw/26582.htm
   http://news.enorth.com.cn/system/2011/09/19/007820240.shtml (Tianjin TV)

3. M3TC was given a special recognition with a citation certificate for major leadership role in global R&D in industrial Drying through managing the Drying Technology journal,numerous seminal books and also several international events and workshops that promote state on industrial drying around the world. It was noted that Singapore is only next to China in number of papers contributed to Drying Technology Journal while Prof. Mujumdar was recognized as the World's TOP Contributor to Archival Drying Literature with over 250 refereed papers to his credit.

4. M3TC presented three research papers at ADC2011 and participated actively in its scientific program and organization. Prof.Mujumdar met with several dryer manufacturers and also visited facilities of one of the largest dryer companies of China. Interestingly, many chinese dryer companies started fabricating vibrated bed dryers after Prof.Mujumdar's first series of lectures on drying in 1984. Now some 400 companies in China manufacture vibrated bed dryers- probably most popular dryer in China today.

5. All ADC2011 participants were given a glossy high quality book of watercolors by MUJUMDAR family- Prof.Mujumdar, Purnima and Amit. It was very well received. Prof. Henry Chen of Taiwan kindly distributed desk calendars of Prof.Mujumdar's watercolors ( Sept 2011- December 2012).

6. Prof. Mujumdar Medal for Outstanding Drying Research and Mentorship was presented to Prof. C. W.Cao of China Agricultural University, Beijing. Althogh Prof. Cao was unable due to health reasons to come to Tianjin at the Award function, coincidently, Prof. Mujumdar was personally able to present him the medal in person after he gave a seminar at the University in Beijing. Prof. Guohua Chen of HKUST must be crediuted with the institution of the Medal which recognizes excellence in drying rseearch as well as outstanding mentorship. Few around the world qualify for this award.

September 3, 2011

1. Dr. Sachin Jangham and Hafiiz Osman have designed and edited the first M3TC Newsletter which is available here. Please forward to your contacts in academia and industry for their information.

2. The one-day Workshop on Industrial Drying to be held October 1st 2011 has attracted significant response. Click here for the flyer and registration information.

3. Prof. Mujumdar will be conferred Doctor Honoris Causa by University of Lyon, France later this year. Details will be posted as they become available.

4. ADC2011 in Tianjin will be largest ever ADC with over 150 papers. Aside from the conference proceedings ,attendees will receive copies of a book of watercolors by Professor Mujumdar and also a desk calendar both designed by Sachin Jangham. Both are available for download on this website under e-books and on the Home Page.

5. A new project dealing with ventilation in underground coal mines has just been initiated under M3TC with Dr. Poh Hee Joo as collaborator.

6. Drying Technology journal will celebrate 30 years of its existance with a series of special theme issues devoted to the Founding Editor Dr Carl Hall and the current editor-in-Chief. The journal expects the 2011 Impact Factor to exceed 2.0.

7. Chapters for the new e-books on Fluidization Engineering are due by mid-December 2011.

8. Vol. 4 of Modern Drying Technology is in proof stage and will be off the press in a few months. As before the quality of contributions is very high. This 5-volume set compliments the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Industrial Drying (CRC Press).

9. Two term papers submitted as assignment in ME6203 Mass Transport taught by Prof. Mujumdar this year will soon be submitted to major chemical engineering journals. Visit e-books page to download the e-book containing 5 of the 7 papers submitted.

10. TPR Group published over 35 journal papers that attracted over 740 citations in 2010. These numbers exclude books citations in books and other languages conference papers etc. Congratulations to all members !

August 30, 2011

1. Drying Technology - An International Journal will commemorate 30 years of its founding in 2012.
   The following excerpt from a letter to Prof. Mujumdar from Prof. C. Strumillo of Lodz, Poland is noteworthy.
   

   I would like to address THE WORLD DRYING COMMUNITY  with the following APPEAL.

   To take the opportunity of the Anniversary of the three decades of the  Journal – Drying Technology, to express to Professor Arun S. Mujumdar–  Editor–in–Chief of Drying Technology: an highest appreciation and  gratitude for decades of his incessant, visionary devoted, valuable,  activity at the position of Editor–in–Chief of Drying Technology Journal  and Professor of Chemical Engineering for the promotion in the world of  Drying Unit Operation as a modern interdisciplinary field. 
   
   Czeslaw Strumillo
   Lodz, Poland.
   
   Click here for the orignal e-mail from Prof. Strumillo.

August 16, 2011

1. An intensive 1 day short course will be hosted by M3TC on Industrial Drying- Principles & Practice on Saturday October 1, 2011. For details of the program click here. There is a small fee for nonacademic participants but academic participants – graduate students, research fellows and faculty members may register free of charge. As seats are limited it is necessary to register in advance. Minor changes to program are possible. This course is unique in that it combines the expertise of some 8 academicians from 6 countries who are all active members of our global TPR network of researchers. In this sense it is a rare opportunity for participants in academe as well as industry in the region.

2. Dr. Sachin Jangam and Mr. Hafiiz Osman visited Sriwijaya University, Palembang, Indonesia and a coal mine (PT Pamapersada Nusantara at Tanjung Enim, Sumatera, Indonesia) during 11-12 Aug 2011. Dr. Jangam presented seminars on NUS, M3TC R&D program as well as the ongoing project on low rank coal dryer development at M3TC. There is strong potential for academic collaboration with Prof. M. Faizal of Sriwijaya University. Click here for an in-depth report on the visit.

3. Prof. Mujumdar will present a Plenary lecture while TPR group will present several research papers at the 7th Asia-Pacific Drying Conference, Tianjin, China in September.

4. Jundika Kurnia has submitted his PhD thesis. He may work with M3TC on modeling of mine ventilation, dust control etc.

July 25, 2011

1. Congratulations to Dr. Agus P. Sasmito for officially receiving his PhD diploma at the Commencement held this month. He is a Research Fellow with M3TC on a mine ventilation modeling project directed by Dr. Erik Birgersson who co-advised his PhD thesis with Prof. Mujumdar. Aside from a number of excellent papers in leading journals, Agus’s thesis is already published as a book. See section under New Books for details.

2. An e-book comprising of the term paper reports of 5 groups out of 7 who completed the module ME6203 Mass Transport last semester is posted as a freely downloadable e-book on our site. This is outcome of a new pedagogical experiment Prof. Mujumdar conducted which he calls: Research Project-Based Learning (RPBL). The approach is similar to the well known PBL (Problem-Based Learning) commonly used over the past decades. The main difference is in the scope of the RPBL approach which makes it suited only for post-graduate modules and requires significant amount of instructional resources. Essentially students conduct a research project from definition, review of literature to solution of the problem and write-up in the form of a journal paper. It is anticipated that some of the papers will be submitted for journal publication after some revision and additional review/editing. The effort of Dr. Agus, Dr. Jangam and Jundika Kurnia in mentoring the students is much appreciated; this certainly was a major factor in ensuring success of this new “pedagogical experiment”.

3. Prof. Mujumdar visited Mining/Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering departments at McGill University, Montreal in June 2011. Areas of common interest include modeling of forced and natural mine ventilation, use of microwave energy to facilitate mining and mineral processing, development of stable nanofluids, and drying technologies. He also met with Prof. Paul Chugh of the University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, IL, USA to discuss underground mine safety, ventilation, dry cleaning of coal and CFD applications in mining.

4. Latest figures on TPR group publications have just been compiled by Dr. Jangam. To summarize: In 2010 TPR Group published 40 journal papers, 20 conference papers, 6 book chapters, 1 book (edited) etc. There were 740 citations in refereed journals to TPR works. The h-index of Prof. Mujumdar’s 440 journal publications stands at 30. Congratulations to all TPR members for their high research productivity.

5. The 2010 impact factor for Drying Technology stands at 1.66. We estimate the I F to rise above 2 in 2011. The journal now publishes 16 issues a year-up from 12. The time from acceptance to on-line publication has now dropped to just 2 months.

6. ADC2011-the 7th Asia-Pacific Drying Conference – will be held in Tianjin, China in September 2011. TPR members have several presentations scheduled at this conference. Note that the First Middle East Drying Conference will be held in Ahwaz, Iran in February 2012. With the establishment of this new series of conferences devoted to drying basics and technology, all areas of the globe are now covered by international events for exchange of knowledge about industrial drying.

7. Volume 3 of Modern Drying Technology edited by Prof. E. Tsotsas and Prof. Mujumdar is now off the press. Here is information about the series, past volumes and next two volumes. Vol. 4 is now in press; Sachin Jangam and I have a chapter on heat pump drying in this volume.
   

   Volume 4 deals with energy savings and the optimization of various drying processes in a variety of areas. Reduction of energy usage in drying is becoming an important consideration in industry in order to conserve the finite fossil fuel resources, reduce carbon footprint and combat climate change. This volume focuses on the following areas: Energy analysis of dryers, solid-liquid separation processes and techniques, osmotic dehydration, heat pump assisted drying technology, zeolite usage, solar drying, drying and heat treatment for solid wood and other biomass sources and sludge thermal processing.
   

   Released Volumes of Modern Drying Technology-published by VCH-Wiley, Germany
   
   
   • Volume 1: Computational Tools at Different Scales
     ISBN 978-3-527-31556-7
   • Volume 2: Experimental Techniques
     ISBN 978-3-527-31557-4
   • Volume 3: Product Quality and Formulation
     ISBN 978-3-527-31558-1
     
     
   Forthcoming Volumes of Modern Drying Technology
   
   
   • Volume 5: Process Intensification
     ISBN 978-3-527-31560-4
   • Set (Volume 1-5)
     ISBN 978-3-527-31554-3

June 25, 2011

1. Prof. Mujumdar visited McGill University, Montreal, Canada and met with several professors in Mining Engineering and in Chemical Engineering Departments. In ChE, Prof. Munier has developed a patented process for making stable CNT nanofluids which are stable also upon repeated boiling. This area appears to have potential for some collaboration with our group and Prof. Saif of ChBE at NUS. He also discussed sustainable mining issues with Prof. Hassani. Areas of interest are energy reduction in mining/mineral processing by microwave-assisted cracking of mineral rocks, robotics in mining, natural ventilation of mines etc. The next World Mining Conference & Expo after the Istanbul conference in September 2011 (we have a paper there) will be held in Montreal in September 2013. Over 2000 delegates are expected.

2. We have a significant number of journal papers accepted by various journals in the last 4 weeks. Congratulations to the authors!

3. We propose to hold a day long short course on Industrial Drying in October 2011. It will start with basic principles and then consider in parallel sessions Dehydration of Coal and Biomass, and Drying of Foods and Pharmaceuticals.
   We will also hold a seminar on "Upgrading of low rank coals" later this year.

June 15, 2011

1. The First Middle East Drying Conference (MEDC) has been announced. It will be held in Ahwaz, Iran in February 2012. Dr Salem Banooni will be the Programme Chair. Please visit www.medc.ir for details and announcements. It is the first time this region of the world will have international conference focusing on drying and allied issues.

2. The third volume in the series Modern Drying Technology (Editors: E. Tsotsas and A.S. Mujumdar) is in press and should be off the press in a few weeks. Volume 4 in this 5-volume series is also complete and ready for production.

3. Karthik, S. will present two papers at ICMAT, a major international conference being held in Singapore during this month.

June 8, 2011

1. Prof. Mujumdar was examiner for two PhD theses at NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. On his return leg he attended the Int. Food Eng. Conference (World Series held every four years) and presented a Keynote Lecture in Athens in May.

2. Dr. Sakamon Devahastin, successfully held a Workshop on Dehydration of Foods and biomaterials at KMUTT, Bangkok, June 6-7, 2011.

3. An outcome of ME6203 Mass Transport is an e-book on Mathematical Modeling of Transport Processes. This book compiles the project reports that students prepared and presented as a result of the new Research Project Based Learning (RPBL) introduced for the first time by Prof. Mujumdar. Readers are invited to download (free) and go through the contents of this e-book. This book includes a number of results obtained for the first time and thus RPBL resulted in some original contribution to knowledge as well.

4. Jundika Kurnia has nearly completed his first draft of his PhD thesis which will be submitted soon.

5. Impact Factor for Drying Technology journal is estimated to be about 1.7 for 2010. For 2011 our preliminary estimates place it at well over 2.0 bringing it in line with top journals in chemical engineering.

May 18, 2011

1. Honorary Doctorate Nomination : Professor Arun S Mujumdar has been nominated by the Board of the Scientific Council of University of Lyon I, Lyon, France, to receive Doctor Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate). The formal function will be held later in 2011. University of Lyon I is ranked among top five multidisciplinary comprehensive universities in France. Visit http://www.univ-lyon1.fr/ . In June 2008 Professor Mujumdar was conferred Doctor Honoris Causa by Lodz Technical University, Lodz, Poland.

May 14, 2011

1. Dr. Arasu has nearly completed is term here under a Govt. of India major fellowship award. He will return to India on May 26th. He worked here on modeling of PCM storage systems for low and high temperature solar applications. Agus and Jundika collaborated with him actively during his stay which has resulted in a number of papers which will be submitted in the near future for journal publication. We expect some future collaboration will continue in the coming years particularly in the solar thermal area. All the best, Dr. Arasu, from the TPR group!

2. Dr Joshua Kuma- one of the founding members of M3TC has moved on to other challenging professional activity. He served effectively as Director(Operations) for M3TC for about three and a half years. We wish him well in his future endeavors and thank him for his valuable contributions right from the start-up period.

3. Prof. Mujumdar will visit Norway and Greece for examination of PhD theses at NTNU and for presenting a Keynote lecture at a major international conference in food engineering in latter half of May 2011.

4. A new project on modeling of mine ventilation including control of dust load will be initiated soon in collaboration with Dr Poh Hee Joo of IHPC (Institute for High Performance Computing) under M3TC. We are looking for a PhD candidate with CFD expertise to work as a Research Fellow.

5. Dr Sachin Jangam was recently recognized with an award at recently held Symposium on Food Processing held in KL. He was cited for his innovative research in drying and professional development contribution via editing of several e-books which are freely downloadable from our site.

6. Dr. Sakamon Devahastin will chair a workshop on Drying of Foods etc at KMUTT, Bangkok in early June 2011.

April 26, 2011

1. Prof. Mujumdar returned from a successful and memorable visit to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz. He presented lectures on his research activities as well as discussed research of mutual interest with faculty members and graduate students. He visited Amirkabir University, Iran University of Science & tchnology, University of Isfahan and Agricultural Research Institute in Shiraz. He was highly impressed with the quality of research as well as the talent of graduate students and staff. Click here to view the seminar announcement at Amirkabir University.

2. The Term Paper project reports in ME6203 Mass Transport will be compiled as an e-book for free downloading in about two months. This is part of a new Research Project-Based Learning Approach to graduate teaching spearheaded by Prof. Mujumdar.

3. ADC 2011 to be held in Tianjin, China in September 2011 has attracted over 180 abstracts - a record for ADC series. It is heartening to see rising interest in drying R&D on a global scale.

April 14, 2011

1. Professor Mujumdar has been invited to several major Iranian universities in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz. Click here for Synopsis of his seminar to Mech. Eng Department at Iran University of Science & Technology. A number of his PhD students (from McGill Univ., Canada) are professors in Iranian universities.

2. The International Symposium on Processing of Foods held in KL, Malaysia, April 11-12, 2011, was a major success. Dr Sachin Jangam of TRP Group was presented an award for his contribution to drying R&D and sustainability. The quality of the presentations was very high. The proceedings of selected papers will appear as a free e-book in 4 months.

3. The Workshop on Mathematical Modeling held at NUS held on April 9, 2011 ( co-organized by M3TC and ME Department) was also a major success. Also, the proceedings will appear as a free e-book soon. It was a follow up of the event held in 2009 focusing on modeling in mineral, mining and materials processing- areas of M3TC interest.

4. A very recent paper co-authored by Agus, Jundika and Mujumdar and published in Zhejiang University Journal was listed amongst the top 10 papers downloaded in 2010. This is commendable since the paper appeared only a few months ago.

March 14, 2011

1. Prof. Guohua Chen of the Chemical Engineering Department of HKUST, Hong Kong was among the three recipients of a major award for Excellence in Research, 2010-2011.
   Dr.Guohua - a PhD from McGill from Prof.Mujumdar's group and an active TPR Group network member- received a research grant and an honorarium in recognition of his excellent research in several areas including drying, environmental remediation, clean coal and biomass technology etc. Congratulations, Guohua!

2. TPR Group members are encouraged to join the E4C site https://www.engineeringforchange.org/home which is co-sponsored by ASME,IEEE and Engineers without borders to connect on a global scale engineers and humanitarian organizations in need of engineering assistance for success. I believe we all can contribute to welfare projects around the world by helping find innovative, sustainable, smart, affordable  and relevant engineering solutions to problems of the developing world. Our free e-books projects is a small contribution in this overall direction as well.

3. Announcement for IDS2012 in Xiamen will appear soon. Prof. Dong Chen who holds joint appoitment at Xiamen University and Monash University is the Chairman. IDS series was founded by Prof. Mujumdar in 1978 while he was at McGill University,Montreal. The multi-disciplinary filed of drying R&D did not exist in any shape or form before this initiative which was carried forward single-handedly and quickly became a global icon in the field. Unlike most specialized conferences which have half life of under a decade, this seies has been growing globally and has also spawned several regional conference series also spearheaded and co-founded by Prof. Mujumdar.

March 8, 2011

1. Some really good news: Prof. Susheng Pang of University of Canterbury -we have collaborated with him in TPR Group for many years- has been elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the International Academy of Wood Science (IAWS) and also is elected Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ). Hearty congratulations, Shusheng, from TPR Group.

2. Professor Y. Itaya -a long time research collaborator of Professor Mujumdar covering over two decades- has been named Professor at Gifu University, Japan. He will move there from Nagoya University. TPR Group extends its hearty congratulations to Prof. Itaya. He and Prof. Pang along with Prof. Guohua Chen of HKUST, will participate in a forthcoming workshop on Coal/Biomass Technologies planned under the umbrella of M3TC in mid-September 2011.

3. Dr Xu Peng is in the process of developing the second volume of the e-book entitled Mathematical Modeling of Transport Processes. Please contact him if you wish to submit a chapter for it..

4. Click here for details of a tentative program on an M3TC Workshop on Sept 16, 2011 regarding Coal and biomass Technologies

5. A workshop on drying is planned for June 6 ,2011 in Bangkok. For program please click here.

March 4, 2011

1. Prof. Mujumdar has been  invited to visit and to present seminars on TPR Group’s recent research projects at several major universities in Iran viz. Teheran University, Amirakbar University, Isfahan University, Agricultural Engineering Research University of Shiraz etc in the third week of April. He has several of his PhD students from McGill University who are professors at various universities in Iran. Some are contributing to the freely downloadable e-books project that our group (TPR) initiated two years ago. There is global warm reception to this novel concept of true professional service disseminating useful refereed knowledge to those who need it on a worldwide scale. We believe that this will have  a valuable positive impact as the themes we have selected deal with improving efficiency of operations in the nexus of food, energy and water

2. There is excellent response to the International Symposium being organized by Dr Chung Lim Law and his team at University of Nottingham, KL campus ,April 11-12, 2011. The program can be found under conference links. Another program more focused on drying of foods will be held at KMUTT, Thonburi, Thailand on June 6, 2011.

3. A half day workshop is planned under M3TC/NUS which will deal with Modeling of Transport Processes on Saturday April 9, 2011. It will be free. Details to be available soon.

4. Abstracts are due before end of the month for ADC2011, Tianjin, China, September 2011. Prof. Mujumdar has been invited to give a Plenary Lecture on R&D, Innovation and Role of Industry-Academe Interaction.

5. IDS2012 will be held in Xiamen, China in late 2012. Details will be available in the near future.

6. Our group will initiate a new research project on modeling mine ventilation including dust and methane management systems.

7. Our paper on Nanofluids Heat Transfer ( Wang Xiangqi and A S Mujumdar ) has generated tremendous global response, culminating in a citation count approaching the two hundred mark.

February 10, 2011

1. Congratulations to Agus on his PhD defense! He is now a Research Engineer working on an M3TC project on mine ventilation.

2. Prof.Maria Laura Passos- a PhD student of Prof. Mujumdar from McGill- formerly of Belo Horizonte, Brazil and now based in Montreal- has initiated a 2-volume set of e-books on Fluidization Engineering with two co-editors (from Brazil and Thailand). Already she has succeeded in enlisting reputable authors for this peer-reviewed books. They will be freely available like our other five e-books already completed here in our TPR Group.

3. The KL Symposium program is now almost final. Click here for the brochure.  Although initially planned as workshop it is now initiated as a Symposium and may become biennial affair.

4. Click here for workshop program for Bangkok on June 6th. Again TPR developed the program with assistance of Dr. Devahastin at KMUTT.

5. Again 2010 has been a bumper year for TPR's research output with over 35 journal papers, several books. many keynote lectures, about 20 conference papers etc. Congratulations to all groupmembers for their high level of productivity!

January 19, 2011

1. Vol. 2 of Drying of Foods, Vegetables and Fruits is now ready and available on our websites for free downloading. It is compiled by Dr Sachin Jangam with the help of Dr Chung Lim Law of University of Nottingham, KL campus. Congratulations!  Vol. 3 in this series should be ready in 3-4 months.

2. Dr Maria Passos is heading the editorial team to produce a high quality, peer-reviewed 2-volume set of e-books on Fluidization Engineering. It is a truly international effort with recognized experts in the field participating in the great professional service.

3. The Symposium on Food Processing will be held in KL April 11-12, 2011. Dr Law is the Program Chair. The Bangkok Workshop in Drying of Foods will be held at KMUTT on June 6, 2011.  Programs for both will be posted soon.

4. Prof. Mujumdar will likely lecture at select universities in Iran possibly in April 2011. Dates have yet to be firmed up. He will give a keynote lecture at an international conference in Athens on Food Engineering in third week of May after attending a PhD oral examination in Trondheim, Norway.

5. February 2011 issue of Drying Technology is available on line- much sooner than in earlier years. We will now publish 16 rather than 12 issues per year. The estimated impact factor of the journal is over 1.60 for 2010. It is expected to exceed 2 in 2011 with changes in on line publication schedule and reduced waiting time for accepted papers.

6. Three major international Drying conferences will be held between June and October 2011. Nordic (NDC) conference in Helsinki in June, Asia-Pacific conference in Tianjin, China in September,  and EuroDrying Conference in Spain in October. In addition the biennial Chinese Drying Conference will be held in October 2011. This reflects continuing rise of interest in drying R&D.

7. An e-book entitled Topics in Heat and Mass Transfer has been compiled elegantly by Dr Jangam. It is now available on our sites. It consists of PPT handouts of guest lectures to be presented as integral part of ME6203 Mass Transport, 2010-2011, given by Prof. Mujumdar.

8. Agus Pulung Sasmito of TPR group will defend his PhD work on February 9th. His work deals with thermal management of PEM fuel cell stacks. He is currently modeling mine ventilation in an M3TC project.

January 10, 2011

1. Happy New Year to all visitors to this page. You can still download freely a 2011 Calendar featuring watercolors by Prof. Mujumdar, Purnima Mujumdar and Amit Mujumdar- all started this as a hobby only recently. It is available on our homepage. Feel free to forward, print etc as you deem necessary.

2. Prof. Mujumdar now has a book on Drying in French-coauthored with Prof. Cesar Kapescu of France. Now his books have appeared in Chinese, Korean, Bhasa Indonesia, Hungarian, Farsi etc. The general level of interest in drying has been rising globally. With focus on the nexus of food, water and energy-all of these have implications in drying technologies- it is hardly surprising that drying R&D will attract even more attention from emerging nations in particular. Already the BRIC nations have overtaken the lead in drying R&D. If and when South Africa joins BRIC, that would be the only nation with little known R&D activity in drying. Over 50 countries participate regularly in IDS series. IDS2012 will be held in Xiamen in 2012 while ADC2011 will also be in held in China -in Tianjin in September 2011. Euro Drying conference will be held in Spain in October 2011.

3. Prof. Mujumdar will present a keynote at a global Food Engg conference in Athens in May. He has also been invited to give an invited lecture (nanofluids heat transfer) in Turkey in June. There is plan to visit several major universities in Iran in April, where a number of his PhDs (from McGill days) are professors.

4. Prof.Mujumdar will lecture in a workshop in Bangkok January 28th. A second one day workshop is planned in June while a 2 day Symposium on Food Processing will be held during April 11-12 in Kuala Lumpur. The planned workshop on math modeling in Singapore will now be converted to a series of weekly lectures and integrated with Prof.Mujumdar's postgraduate course in mass transport. An e-book consisting of powerpoint handouts of five lectures will also be uploaded for free distribution/access very soon.

5. Dr Sachin's study of archival publications data of ME faculty shows that the faculty are highly productive with average of 7 journal papers per faculty member in 2010. Prof. Mujumdar tops the list with 34 (click here to see bar-chart). It is interesting to note that his citation count for 2010 alone is well over 700; total count is about 7000. Additionally, he has over 500 citations in chinese language journals as well which is not covered by ISI.

6. We have several new members and new projects in TPR as of this month. One new PhD, one MEng and one Final Year research student have initiated research. Our pilot scale screw conveyor dryer for pulverised coal is under construction. Prof. Maria Aparacida of Brazil will visit us in early March and will give a talk on Brazil's famous biofuels program (ethanol from cane sugar).

7. Drying Technology will publish 16 issues per year from 2011-up from 12 issues. Prof. Mujumdar reviews all referee-accepted manuscripts before final acceptance. The impact factor for 2010 is estimated to be around 1.6. As of 2011 electronic versions of accepted papers will be available sooner than the printed versions, which should please authors (and editors as well!).

8. Our TPR group has received numerous invitations to write book chapters. Many have been completed and a new one has just arrived. The second volume on Foods Drying (e-book) is almost ready for posting within a couple of weeks.