Panagiotis D. Christofides

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department Chair

Panagiotis D. Christofides is the chair of the UCLA Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He received a diploma in chemical engineering in 1992 from the University of Patras, Greece; master’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics in 1995 and 1996, respectively, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1996, all from the University of Minnesota. In July 1996 he joined the faculty of UCLA, where he is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering.

His research interests include nonlinear and predictive control, and analysis and control of distributed parameter systems, multiscale systems and hybrid systems, with applications to chemical processes, advanced materials processing, particulate processes, energy and water systems. His work has resulted in more than 450 articles in leading scientific journals and conference proceedings, and seven books that have earned him a Google Scholar h-index of 60. He has supervised more than 50 graduate students and has graduated 30 Ph.D. students, many of whom hold leading positions in academia or industry. A description of his research interests and a list of his publications and students can be found here.

Christofides has received several awards , including the Teaching Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter of UCLA in 1997, a research initiation grant from the American Chemical Society – Petroleum Research Fund in 1998, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 1998, the Ted Peterson Student Paper Award and the Outstanding Young Researcher Award from the Computing and Systems Technology Division of AIChE in 1999 and 2008, respectively, and a Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research in 2001. He has twice received the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award in 2000 and 2004, and the Donald P. Eckman Award in 2004, from the American Automatic Control Council. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Federation of Automatic Control and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on the editorial board of leading control and chemical engineering journals and conferences.