In Memoriam Of Jiri Klemes
The EFCE CAPE Working Party has arranged during the ESCAPE 33 conference in Athens a full program to honor the very outstanding figure of Prof. Jiri Klemes, the former Chairman of CAPE, who passed away last January. Jiri Klemes was a very much appreciated person in the CAPE WP with extensive contributions to the Chemical Engineering through his research and his teaching activities. One is quickly impressed by the amount of contributions to books, magazine editorials, referenced journals, articles and conference proceedings – a really huge amount of documents! -; by his activity in many different universities around the world; by his contribution to Further Professional Development in many industries in Europe, Asia and Africa; finally even by the number of his spoken languages: 11 in a world where 3 or 4 represent already a good standard!
I would start with his teaching experience, that spread from 1984 to 2023. He taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Brno Technical University and Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague in Czechoslovakia; University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology – UMIST and the University of Manchester, UK and University of Pannonia in Hungary. Supervision of Dissertations and Thesis at Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, Brno Technical University in the Czech Republic, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology – UMIST and The University of Manchester, UK; Tyndall Centre for the Research on Climate Change in the UK and the University of Pannonia in Hungary. He was running a Collaboration PhD Project with University of Maribor, Slovenia. He was PhD co-supervisor and from 2012 a Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Technology in Malaysia, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Cracow Politechnic University, Poland, and at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an Shaanxi, China.
I first came to know Jiri when I joined the thriving Center of Process Integration (CPI) at UMIST as a young academic, fresh from USA. Under the leadership of Profs Robin Smith and Bodo Linnhoff, CPI was producing state-of-the-art research and Jiri was an established figure in charge of its numerous projects and initiatives. Jiri was an outstanding person, but at the same time a well-liked teacher, colleague, and friend to many, whom we will remember with great affection.
A Special Session is organized in his memory on Tues 20 June at the ESCAPE meeting. The session will be chaired by his life-time colleagues Prof Robin Smith and Ferenc Friedler. The session will include 30-minute memory flashback and will be followed by research presentations in topics that have been close to his heart.
Prof Antonis Kokossis
Organizing Committee
ESCAPE 33
Athens
