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Richard Turton
Professor, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

ABOUT

Richard Turton is the WVU Bolton Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of the faculty of the since 1986. He has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles, many in the area of process simulation of power plants and powder technology. He has presented or co-presented over 100 conference papers and in the last 5 years the majority of these presentations have been in the field of process simulation, control, and optimization of power generation plants. He is the lead author of two textbooks: Analysis, Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes, R. Turton, R. C. Bailie, W. B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz, and D. Bhattacharyya, Prentice-Hall, 4th edition, April 2012 and Chemical Process Equipment Design, R. Turton and J.A. Shaeiwitz, Prentice-Hall, Jan 2017. He has also coauthored 5 book chapters. He is a past chair of the University Faculty Senate and currently is a member of the WVU Board of Governors.

EXPERIENCE

After completing his MS degree at Oregon State University, Turton was a process engineer at M.W. Kellogg Company in London, England and at Fluor E&C Corporation in Irvine, California. He worked on feasibility and detailed engineering projects in the Oil, Petrochemicals, and Syn-Fuels areas. He joined WVU immediately after completing his doctoral degree from Oregon State University. His research at WVU has spanned a variety of topics:

  • Powder and particle technology, specializing in coating uniformity of pharmaceutical products

  • Simulation, control, and optimization of chemical processes with emphasis in energy production with and without carbon capture.

  • Design education

EDUCATION

  • P.E. State of West Virginia

  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis M.S., Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis B.S., Chemical Engineering, Nottingham University, Nottingham, England