Roe-Hoan Yoon, the Nicholas T. Camicia Professor of Mining and Minerals Engineering in the College of Engineering, has received one of the highest honors awarded by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME).

The Robert H. Richards Award in Minerals Processing was presented to Yoon on Feb. 28 during the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo. The award recognizes Yoon for his metallurgical research in advancing the surface chemistry of mineral systems, cleaning and dewatering coal, developing flotation kinetic models, and designing new minerals processing technologies, as well as for his dedication to high-quality engineering education.

During his award acceptance speech, “From Fundamental Research to Technology Development,” Yoon addressed the issue of the critical need to increase research and development funding for technologies that will advance better use of domestic energy resources.

Since joining the Virginia Tech faculty in 1979, Yoon has developed an internationally recognized research program in minerals processing and clean coal technology. He served for 13 years as director of the university’s Center for Coal and Minerals Processing and in 2001 became director of the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies (CAST), a consortium of seven U.S. engineering schools.

Under Yoon’s leadership, CAST researchers develop advanced technologies in solid-solid and solid-liquid separations to help the mining industry produce high-quality solid fuels in an environmentally acceptable and sustainable manner. It is the only center in the U.S. devoted to separations research as applied to mining industry. In 2005, CAST secured a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Yoon’s numerous honors include the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Research Excellence, SME’s Antoine M. Gaudin Award, and honorary professorships at Central South University and North East University of China. He holds appointments as an affiliated professor with the Virginia Tech departments of materials science and engineering and engineering science and mechanics.

Yoon completed his master’s and Ph.D. degrees at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University in Korea.

SME is an international society of professionals in the minerals industry, with more than 11,500 members in about 100 countries.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college’s 5,500 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a “hands-on, minds-on” approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 1,900 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology.

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