Robert C. Brown, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of engineering.
NAE membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions in at least one of the following categories: “engineering practice, research, or education,” “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or development/implementation of innovative approaches to engineering education” or “engineering leadership of one or more major endeavors.”
NAE members are among the world’s most accomplished engineers from business, academia, and government. Founded in 1964, the NAE provides independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation, offering leadership and insights for a complex world.
Elected by their peers, the new class members will be formally inducted during the NAE’s Annual Meeting on Oct. 5.
About Robert C. Brown:
Brown has built multi-disciplinary teams at Iowa State distinguished by the use of thermochemical technologies to produce fermentable sugars from cellulose, provide substrate for gas fermentation, and convert waste plastics into substrate for production of single cell protein and oleochemicals. He has received over $150 million in research contracts and grants during his academic career including $16.5 million for a ConocoPhillips Biofuels program and $22 million for an NSF EPSCoR Track 1 RII Project in Renewable Energy.
Brown is the founding director and currently co-director of the Bioeconomy Institute (BEI), which coordinates Iowa State’s research, educational, and outreach activities related to biobased products and bioenergy. He also helped launch Iowa State’s Biorenewable Resources and Technology graduate program, the first such degree-granting program in the United States.
Brown has published over 300 refereed papers and book chapters. He wrote Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, now in its second edition, the most widely used textbook in biorenewables over the last decade. His book Why Are We Producing Biofuels received the Book of the Year Award from Biofuels Digest in 2012.
Brown was recognized by Biofuels Digest as one of the “Top 100 People” in bioenergy for six consecutive years. He received the Don Klass Award for Excellence in Thermochemical Conversion Science in 2015 and the Andrew Chase Division Award in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2020. He has developed 26 patented inventions, one of which received a R&D 100 Award from Research and Development Magazine in 1997. In 2022, he led a team that received a Milestone Prize from the XPRIZE Foundation in carbon removal based on technology developed at Iowa State.
He holds his primary appointment in Iowa State’s Department of Mechanical Engineering with courtesy appointments in the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and Food Science and Human Nutrition. He has been on faculty at Iowa State University for almost 42 years.
Brown received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University in 1980. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.