A great photo below of a great team, reunited in Brisbane after many years. The names Tadimety Chakrapani (TC) Rao (posting of 16th July 2014) and Alban Lynch (posting of 11th August 2014)were synonymous in the late 1960s with the development of mathematical models of mineral processing systems.
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| Profs. Rao and Lynch reunited in Brisbane |
Prof. Rao obtained his Ph.D degree, under the guidance of Prof. Lynch in 1965, working on the characteristics of hydrocyclones. They published their work on hydrocyclones in a number of seminal papers, and the models are still valid today, being used in many hydrocyclone manufacturers' performance curves. TC attributes their on-going validity to their simplicity, involving parameters which can be easily measured, such as vortex finder diameter, spigot diameter, and can therefore be confidently accepted by operators.
T.C. Rao was the first international PhD student of mining engineering at The University of Queensland (UQ) and on October 19th UQ held its annual Courting the Greats Ceremony which recognises significant achievements by graduates. Prof. Rao, who started his life at UQ by residing at Emmanuel College, was recognised as the UQ International Alumnus of the year (full story on MEI Online).
Congratulations TC, great news of two great mineral processors.
Twitter @barrywills
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In 1961 hydrocyclones were new and were being used to replace rake classifiers. They often gave poor results and MIM built a test rig to find out more about them. Rao was at UQ and he went to Mount Isa for months to carry out tests on the rig. From his results came the cyclone equation which is still used today. It was used then in a mill-cyclone simulation and optimisation procedure and as a soft sensor to define product size in a closed grinding circuit control system. Both were successful.
ReplyDeleteRao’s achievements at ISM and CSIR in India are well known, suffice it to write that his lifetime of work brought him the UQ International Graduate of the Year Award.
Alban Lynch, Australia
During the same week in which Prof. T.C. Rao was recognised as the UQ International Alumnus of the year, he also gave a seminar at JKMRC, in which he presented what he called Rao's Hollistic Approach for Sustainable Growth of Mineral Processing Industries.
ReplyDeleteIn this seminar, he remarked that more attention should be put into R&D, our operation philosophy, the use and dispose of resources in a more inclusive way, from a an efficiency and socio-economical point of view.
It was such a great opportunity for the current JKMRC students to learn a little bit from a researcher that has created such an impact in the mineral processing.
Juanjo Frausto
Dear Dr. Barry,
ReplyDeleteTill date, l was just an admirer of your book on ‘Mineral Processing Technology’. Whenever, I used to read your book, I use to think that you are a ‘Magician of Language’ and give full credit for the brilliant analogies and methodology you brought on the subject matter. This book has eroded all my doubts and gave better understanding on the processing of ores and minerals. I thank you for this because it has helped me to shapeup myself as a ‘good teacher’.
I must also thank for your global treasure - ‘MEI Blog’ you created. This has become the one and the only one platform for the Mineral Engineers to collate electronically and interact. Bringing the latest information on Minerals Engineering on this blog has been your style of living. Your recent information on the MEI blog describing Prof T C Rao as “Father of Indian Mineral Processing”, which is true, has become a viral among the young talents.
The photographs of Prof A J Lynch and Prof T C Rao, you placed on the blog gives a silent message to the youngsters that if a teacher and student work together, ‘the results can be historic’. The photographs of great personalities on MEI blog, like Dr. Lynch, Dr. Rao, Dr. Napier Mann and others, gives activation energy to all youngsters.
Dr. Barry, I became very emotional to read the information on contributions of ‘Lynch-and-Rao’ on the MEI Blog. I thank you for this once again, because by doing so you have uphold both ‘Indian School of Mines-Dhanbad’ and ‘Queensland University’ by bringing them on to the limelight.
With warm regards.
Prof. Nikkam Suresh
Professor and Head of the Dept.
Department of Fuel and Mineral Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad.