Ahmet Palazoglu
2024-25 Academic Senate Vice Chair
Ahmet Palazoglu is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. From 2011 to 2014, he was the chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. For the Davis division of the Academic Senate, Palazoglu served as its vice-chair and then chair from September 1, 2020 to August 30, 2024. He was also the chair of two divisional committees, Planning & Budget and Academic Personnel. His systemwide service includes membership on the University Committee on Planning & Budget and chairing the University Committee on Academic Personnel.
His research program, categorized under process systems engineering (PSE), includes modeling, optimization, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to address practical problems in a broad range of systems. These cover diverse multi-disciplinary studies ranging from revealing the impact of meteorological patterns on air pollution to understanding the folding dynamics of proteins. He published extensively on the detection and diagnosis of faulty (abnormal) process operations. His recent research is on the optimization of process systems under demand-response constraints, highlighting how one can exploit variability in electricity markets to devise pro-active production planning and management strategies. His contributions to sustainable operations are demonstrated by a collaborative study with the UC Davis Facilities Management and can be seen here.
Palazoglu is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He has more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He co-authored two books, Chemical Process Performance Evaluation (with A. Cinar and F. Kayihan) published in 2007, and an undergraduate textbook, Introduction to Process Control (with J.A. Romagnoli) in 2006 with its third edition appearing in 2020. The CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group) was the publisher of both books.
He co-translated (with L. Soysal) selected poems of Alice Walker to Turkish with the title Devrimci Petunyalar (Revolutionary Petunias), which were published by Günışığı Kitaplığı in 1997. His interview with Alice Walker appeared in the Turkish daily Milliyet on May 25, 1998.
Palazoglu received his BS degree in chemical engineering from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey and MS degree in chemical engineering from Bogazici University, also in Turkey. His PhD degree, in chemical engineering, is from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY. He has been a faculty member at UC Davis since 1984.
