Major IMPC Awards to two distinguished American Professors

Over the past 15 years I have photographed the recipients of the International Mineral Processing Council's major awards. This year there is no MEI representation at the IMPC, due to visa problems, but ironically neither of this year's recipients were able to travel to receive their awards, which were announced this evening at the IMPC Gala Dinner in Moscow.

The 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Prof. Jan Miller of the University of Utah. Prof. Miller is the Ivor D. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Utah. He received his BS degree from Pennsylvania State University, and his MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines. At the University of Utah Professor Miller has devoted over 40 years to undergraduate and graduate education. His research covers mainly the areas of mineral processing and hydrometallurgy, specializing in particle characterization, aqueous solution chemistry, and colloid and surface chemistry. He is a member of SME, TMS, and ACS. The recipient of numerous honours and awards, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993. In recent years Jan has become a world leader in the field of x-ray tomography in minerals processing, and presented keynote lectures on this subject at MEI's Process Mineralogy '12 and Process Mineralogy '17 in Cape Town.

Jan Miller (centre) with Henrique Kahn and Ben Tordoff at Process Mineralogy '17

Jan Miller with Xuming Wang and Barry Wills, IMPC 2016 Quebec

Prof. Douglas Fuerstenau has added the IMPC's Distinguished Service Award to his long list of prestigious awards- he was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in San Francisco in 1995.

San Francisco 1995, with Eric Forssberg and John Herbst

The IMPC awards are just two of very many awards that he has received during his illustrious career, and in his MEI interview 3 years ago he told me that his proudest moment was when he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976, considered the highest honour for an engineer in the United States.  Now only three months away from his 90th birthday it is a shame that he was unable to make the very long journey to Russia to collect his award, as he has been a very active participant in the International Mineral Processing Congresses, starting with the 6th Congress in Cannes in 1963. Fifty years ago he attended the 8th IMPC in Leningrad, and he told me that it was  a great experience meeting the major Russian mineral processing scientists and engineers of the 1950s and 60s. He last attended an IMPC in 2014 in Santiago, where he congratulated me on receiving the Distinguished Service Award, and I hope to reciprocate soon, possibly in Denver next year for the International Symposium in his honour.

Santiago 2014 with Doug Fuerstenau and Eric Forssberg

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