Professor Eric S Fraga received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in 1988. After several years working in departments of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Chemical Engineering at the Universities of Dundee, British Columbia, and Edinburgh, Dr Fraga joined the department in 1996 as an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow and is currently Professor of Process Systems Engineering. His work is primarily in computer aided process engineering, specializing in automated process synthesis and the use of Internet related tools for collaborative design. He is also particularly interested in the use of visualization and knowledge discovery methods for generation of insight in process design. Professor Fraga is a member of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering, a joint centre between UCL and Imperial College.

Professor Fraga’s research interests lie at the interfaces between engineering, mathematics and computer science. He is specifically interested in the design of novel computer algorithms and mathematical techniques and their application to problems in process engineering. In the past, his research has concentrated on the development of methods for automated process design, or process synthesis, with the development of tools for the design of profitable, safe, environmentally benign chemical plants. These tools, including most prominently the Jacaranda system, use a variety of optimization methods and specially targeted visualization and interaction procedures to provide a system which is both powerful and easy to use. Further details are available from Professor Fraga’s home pages.