Roe-Hoan Yoon elected fellow of National Academy of Inventors

I am very pleased to report that Roe-Hoan Yoon, a University Distinguished Professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering and director of the Center of Advanced Separation Technologies, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology, Prof. Yoon developed and patented the microbubble flotation process, which has been marketed commercially under the name Microcel, regarded by the coal industry as one of the best technologies for separating fine particles.

Prof. Yoon is internationally known for significant contributions to advancing the technology and science of mineral processing, fine particle separation and dewatering, column flotation, chemistry of sulfide mineral flotation, fine particle dewatering, and colloid and surface chemistry. 

In 2017 I had the pleasure of interviewing him (posting of 14 August 2017) and I asked him many questions to which he did not merely reply, but put together a fascinating mini-autobiography of his life from humble origins in South Korea to his position as one of the world’s top scientists in his field.

In the conversation he said that his inspiration to work on the flotation of fine particles came from a paper on the hydrodynamics of bubble-particle collision by Prof. Graeme Jameson, another giant in the field of flotation innovation.

Profs. Jameson and Yoon at Flotation '11

Both Prof. Jameson and Prof.Yoon are recipients of the IMPC Lifetime Achievement Award (LTAA), and I had the honour of sharing the stage with Roe-Hoan in Santiago in Chile, when he was presented with the LTAA and I received the Distinguished Service Award.

Santiago, Chile 2014
Prof. Yoon, BW and Profs. Juan Yianatos and Cyril O'Connor

Prof. Yoon presented a keynote lecture "Developing a Flotation Model from First Principles" at Flotation '17 and we hope to have him back in Cape Town in November for Flotation '23 to hear more of continuing developments in his research. 

With Prof Yoon at Flotation '17 prior to his keynote lecture

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