INVITED SPEAKERS

Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis

Dr. Themelis obtained his B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in chemical engineering. 

He was Director of the Engineering Division of the Noranda Research Center in Pointe Claire where he invented and helped build the first continuous smelting and converting process, called the Noranda Process. Between 1972 and 1980, Prof. Themelis was Vice President of Technology of Kennecott Corp., the major no-ferrous company at that time. He was appointed as Professor by Columbia University (New York, U.S.A.) in 1980 and was elected to Stanley-Thompson Chair of Chemical Metallurgy in 1988. He was chairman of the Henry Krumb School of Mines and founded Columbia’s Earth Engineering Center in 1996. In 1997 he led the transformation of the historic School of Mines to the new engineering discipline of Earth and Environmental Engineering and was first chairman of the new Department.

Prof. Themelis is the recipient of several professional awards, author of nearly 200 technical papers and books and inventor of twenty one patents related to high temperature mineral and metal processing.