Gilbert F. Froment was born in 1930. He received the degree of Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1957 at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Later, he worked as post-Doc at the University of Darmstadt, Germany, and the University of Wisconsin, USA. In 1968 he became full Professor in chemical technology at the University of Ghent and headed there the laboratory of petrochemical technology. In 1998, after retirement, joined the University of Texas as research Professor.
Professor G. Froment is a member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Foreign member of the Academy of Engineering of USA and a member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Science and Engineering. He also has the title of Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Technion (Haifa, Israel) and the University of Nancy (France).
The Professor in charge of thesis about 75 of his students, has published more than 350 scientific papers in international journals, and delivered more than 300 presentations at University seminars and international conferences around the world. His book "Analysis and design of chemical reactors" (Chemical Reactor Analysis and Design G. F. Froment, K. B. Bischof and J. De Wilde – Publ:.J.Wiley,N. Y,3rd Ed, 2010) became a classic textbook and used in training courses worldwide, in addition, it has been translated into Chinese. According to the Scopus his work has more than 10 thousand citations and current h-index is 58.
Professor G. Froment in 1978 received the prestigious R. H. Wilhelm Award in chemical engineering from the American Institute of chemical Engineers (A. I. Ch.E) in 1999, Villermaux medal-Medal of the European Federation of Chemical engineering, Amundson award Award of the International Symposium on Chemical Engineering in 2007 and an award of International Recognition of Mexico in 2010.
The Professor is an active consultant to major national and international oil refining and petrochemical companies worldwide, as well as scientific organizations, in particular, Petrofina (Belgium), Elf, Total, Institut Français du Pétrole, Rhône-Poulenc (France), Amoco, BP of America, Exxon, Mobil, Conoco, du Pont, SYNOXY, KTI, Control Data Corporation, Aspen Tech (USA), DSM (the Netherlands), BASF (Germany), Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (Mexico), Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo (Columbia), Entevep (Venezuela), ICI (UK), SABIC (Saudi Arabia) and Synfuels China (China), Gazpromneft (Russia).
Professor Gilbert F. Froment is today internationally known and recognized specialist of the highest level and "living classic" in the field of engineering and modeling of catalytic reactions. His work largely determined the current appearance of modern technologies in oil refining and petrochemical industries as well as advanced scientific approaches to their development.