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In a ceremony on November 17^th in Ottawa, Professor Ponisseril Somasundaran will be inducted as one of the newest Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, the only one from outside Canada to be elected this year. A member of the faculty of Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science since 1970, Dr. Somasundaran was named La von Duddleson Krumb Professor in 1983. He was the chairman of the Henry Krumb School from 1988 to 1992 and of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Mining from 1992 to 1997 and is currently Director of the National Science Foundation I/UCR Center for Advanced Studies in Novel Surfactants and Langmuir Center for Colloids and Interfaces. He was one of the youngest members to be elected in 1985 to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest possible distinction then in engineering in the U.S. He was also elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering (1998), Indian National Academy of Engineering (1999) and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2000) and Balkan academy of science/Mineral Technology. He was awarded  Padma Shri by the Indian Government in 2010. He was elected  a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2009. The Alumni Association of Columbia University’s Alumni Association and Asian Columbia Association presented him with the Distinguished Alumni Award for outstanding achievement and commitment to excellence  in 2007. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1990 along with such recipients as the then President George Bush and four former presidents. He is also the recipient of the Gaudin Award (1982), the Mill Man of Distinction Award (1983), the Publication Board Award (l980) the Richards Award (l987), the Taggart Award (1987) and the Henry Krumb Lecturer (1989) and is a Distinguished Member (1983) of SME, the "Most Distinguished Achievement in Engineering" award from AINA (1980) and the Engineering Foundation's Aplan Award (1992). He was honored as the only 1989 Distinguished Alumnus and the first Brahm Prakash Chair in 1990 from the Indian Institute of Science.

He has been honored in many countries.  He was appointed as an Honorary Professor at the Central University of Technology of China, 1988-1993, and an Honorary Research Advisor at the Beijing Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, Beijing, China, in 1991.  He has been a lecturer at many international symposiums. He was a keynote speaker and Honorary Chair at the International Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Conference in Beijing, China in July 2001, when he also met President Jiang Zemin. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Fine Particle Society and the New York Academy of Sciences.

            He is the author/editor of 15 books and close to 700 scientific publications and patents.  He is the Honorary Editor-in-chief of the international journal "Colloids and Surfaces," the Editor-in-Chief of “The Encyclopedia of Surface and Colloid Science” and has served on many international, national and professional committees and National Research Council Panels, NSF research and advisory panels, DOI Advisory Panel and university research advisory panels. He served in the Congress’ 28^th Environmental Advisory Committee (Congressman Gilman, Chair). The Pan American Committee also awarded Prof. Somasundaran the title of Pan American Advisor for Mines, Metallurgy and Materials. He was the Chairman of the Board of the Engineering Foundation (1993-95) and has served on the board of the SME/AIME (1982-85).

He has been a consultant to NSF, NIH, United Nations, IBM, Duracell, Exxon, Colgate-Palmolive, Union Carbide, B.F. Goodrich, LVMH, Nalco, Honeywell, Allied Signal, ALJ Corp, ISP, Pennwalt, Amoco, Unilever, etc. His research interests are in surface and colloid chemistry, nanotechnology, applications for Enhanced Oil Recovery, flotation, dispersion, waste treatment, molecular interactions at surfaces using advanced spectroscopy, polymer, surfactant and protein adsorption and biosurface phenomena. 

 In the community, he served as member of the Piermont Planning Board and currently as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and Citizen Advisory Committee, Board of the Volunteers in Service to Education in India, U.S. Congress 28^th District Environmental Advisory Committee etc.

(For further information please contact Jackie Pavlik  at 212-854-8812 or email: jackie@columbia.edu)