Newswise — MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering and the inaugural Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability at Tufts University’s School of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Flytzani-Stephanopoulos's election to the NAE recognizes her contributions to clean energy technologies through her research on atomically dispersed heterogeneous metal catalysts for the efficient production of fuels and chemicals.

She is recognized as a leader in the field of catalysis and her achievement underscores her position a leading scientist in engineering for sustainability research, one of the School of Engineering's three strategic cross-disciplinary focus areas.

Founded in 1964, the NAE has more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates—senior professionals in business, academia, and government who are among the world’s most accomplished engineers.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education."Flytzani-Stephanopoulos joined Tufts as the Raytheon Professor of Pollution Prevention in January 1994. Before coming to Tufts, she was a principal research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

She has published more than 150 technical papers, and holds nine US patents. At Tufts, she directs the Nanocatalysis and Energy Laboratory. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the elected Chair of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for 2014, and a Director-at-Large of the North American Catalysis Society. Since 2002, she has served as Editor of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

Flytzani-Stephnaopoulos has received many honors and awards, including the 2007 Distinguished Scholar Award of Tufts University, the 2008 Henry J. Albert award of the International Precious Metals Institute in recognition of outstanding theoretical and experimental contributions to the science and technology of precious metals, and the 2013 biennial Giuseppe Parravano Memorial Award for Excellence in Catalysis Research from the Michigan Catalysis Society.

This year, the NAE has elected 67 new members from the United States and 11 foreign associates. This brings the total number of members from the US to 2,250 and the number of foreign associates to 214.

Additional information on her work is available at http://engineering.tufts.edu/chbe/people/flytzaniStephanopoulos/

###Tufts University School of Engineering Located on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus, the School of Engineering offers a rigorous engineering education in a unique environment that blends the intellectual and technological resources of a world-class research university with the strengths of a top-ranked liberal arts college. Close partnerships with Tufts' excellent undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, coupled with a long tradition of collaboration, provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary education and scholarship. The School of Engineering’s mission is to educate engineers committed to the innovative and ethical application of science and technology in addressing the most pressing societal needs, to develop and nurture twenty-first century leadership qualities in its students, faculty, and alumni, and to create and disseminate transformational new knowledge and technologies that further the well-being and sustainability of society in such cross-cutting areas as human health, environmental sustainability, alternative energy, and the human-technology interface

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