Department staff
Professor Zoltan K. Nagy BSc MSc PhD AMIChemE MIEEE
Professor of Process Systems Engineering
- Tel
- +44 (0)1509 222516
- z.k.nagy@lboro.ac.uk
Background
Zoltan Nagy received his BSc in Chemical Engineering (1993) an MSc in Catalysis and Biocatalysis (1994) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (2001) from the "Babes-Bolyai" University of Cluj, Romania. From 1995 to 2005 he held Assistant and Associate Professor positions at the same university. In 1996 he was Visiting Research Scientist and Visiting Lecturer at the University of the South, Sewanee, TN, SUA. In 1997 he was honorary research assistant (Tempus Fellow) in the CTI (Computers in Teaching Initiative) Centre for Chemistry, University of Liverpool, UK.
From 1998 to 2001 he held several Visiting Researcher positions at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (1999), the University of Stuttgart and University of Heidelberg, Germany (2000), and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (2000). From 2001 to 2002 he was NSF-NATO Research Fellow, and from 2002 to 2003 visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 2003 to 2005, Dr Nagy worked as a senior research associate at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, where he worked in collaboration with BASF and ABB on industrial projects. Dr Nagy joined Loughborough University in August 2005 was promoted to Senior Lecturer in February 2007 and to Professor in July 2010.
Professional affiliations
- Associate member of IChemE
- Member of the British Association for Crystal Growth (BACG)
- Executive Committee member of BACG (2007 – 2008)
- Member of Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
- Member of IEEE Control Systems Society
- Member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Industrial Process Control
External appointments (since 2000)
- Subject Editor (Pharmaceutical Engineering) and Member of the Editorial Board of Chemical Engineering Research and Design
- Associate Editor for Control Engineering Practice
- Guest Editor for Special Issue on Pharmaceutical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Research and Design (2007)
- Guest Editor for Special Issue on Computer Aided Process Design, Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering (2008)
- Affiliate member of the Research School of Systems Engineering, Loughborough University
- External PhD examiner: Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Delft University of Technology, etc.
- Regular reviewer for over 40 journals and 15 conferences (over 300 reviews in 2001-2010), book reviews for McGraw-Hill, Springer, John Wiley and Sons, and International Grant Proposals (Belgium, Netherlands, France)
Research interests and activities
- Pharmaceutical and Crystallisation Systems Engineering
- Mathematical modelling, monitoring and control of crystallization systems
- Process analytical technologies and chemometrics
- Population balance modelling and computation fluid dynamics
- Nonlinear model predictive control and estimation, Robust optimal control, Batch process control
- Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of chemical, biomedical and biological systems
- Mathematical modelling for optimization and control of chemical processes and plant-wide control
- Applications of artificial intelligence techniques in chemical process modelling, analysis and control
- Virtual instrumentation, E-learning and Telelaboratory in Chemical Engineering Education
Selected awards
- “Most Highly Cited Paper in Journal of Process Control in the period 2005-2010”, (2010)
- “Chemical Research Collaboration Success Award”, Council for Chemical Research, USA, (2009)
- “Journal of Process Control Best Paper Award”, (2008)
- “Control Engineering Practice Best Paper Award”, (2008)
- “ESCAPE18 Best Paper Award”, 18th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, Lyon, France, (2008)
- “Tudor Tanasescu Award of the Romanian Academy of Science”, (2008)
- “Royal Academy of Engineering and ExxonMobile Excellence in Teaching Award”, (2007)
- “IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award“, (2005)
- “Best Application Paper award”, honorary mention, IFAC World Congress, Prague, (2005)
- “Highly cited paper in Journal of Process Control in the period 2002-2005”, (2005)
- Automatica Outstanding Reviewer Award, (2003)
- Best paper award, 6th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, USA, (2002)
- NATO-NSF Award for postdoctoral fellowship (1 year) at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, (2001)
Selected invited and keynote lectures
- Design of drug dissolution through distribution shaping and polymorphic control, invited and featured conference talk for the Solubility Enhancement in Drug Development Conference, Renaissance Zurich Hotel, Zurich, Switzerland, 1 December, 2010, (/www.informa-ls.com/solubility)
- Closing the distance – Constructivist Laboratory Education using the TriLab Laboratory Model, 2nd Annual International Conference on Technology for Education, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India, July 3, 2010, invited lecture
- Predictive model based control of crystal size and shape using a population balance modelling framework to effectively use technology for process optimisation during drug production and development, invited conference talk for the Polymorphism and Crystallisation 2010 Pre-Conference Focus Day, London, U.K., March 15, 2010
- Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Systems Engineering - An integrated approach for drug dosage design, invited talk for the IChemE Computer Aided Process Engineering Subject Group meeting on “Systems Biology with Industrial Focus”, Imperial College, London, U.K., June 26, 2008
- Mathematical modelling, monitoring and control of pharmaceutical crystallization systems, invited talk for the IChemE Fluid Mixing Processes and Pharma Subject Group meeting, GlaxoSmithKline R&D, Stevenage, U.K., April 3, 2008
- Recent advances in the modelling and control of cooling and antisolvent crystallization of pharmaceuticals, 8th International Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems (DYCOPS 2007), Cancun, Mexico, June 7, 2007, keynote lecture
- More than 50 invited lectures, seminars, at universities (e.g. ETH, Zurich; McMaster, Canada; Univ. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany; National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico; Memorial University, Canada; University of Alberta, Canada; EPFL, Switzerland; University of Heidelberg, Germany; University of Stuttgart, Germany; University of the South, USA; Veszprem University, Hungary; Imperial College London; Cambridge University; Heriot-Watt University; Cranfield University; University of Strathclyde; University of Reading; The University of Manchester; The University of Sheffield; Newcastle University; University of Surrey, etc.) and companies (AstraZeneca, U.K.; ABB, Germany; BASF, Germany; Vertex, USA, etc.)
Organising / Scientific Committee of International Conferences
- International Program Area co-chair, International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes (ADCHEM 2012), July, Singapore, (2012)
- Member of Scientific Committee, 18th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization (ISIC18), 13-16 September, Zurich, Switzerland, (2011)
- International Programme Committee Member, IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control, 8-10 September, Yokohoma, Japan, (2010)
- Organizer (with RD Braatz) of the invited session on “Uncertainty Analysis and Robust Model Based Control”, within the International Symposium on Computer-Aided Control Systems Design (CACSD), at the 2010 IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control, Yokohama, Japan, September 8-10, (2010)
- Section Chair, Dynamics and Control of Process Systems, (DYCOPS 2010), 4-7 July, Leuven, Belgium, (2010)
- Member of the International Programming Committee (IPC), Dynamics and Control of Process Systems, (DYCOPS 2010), 4-7 July, Leuven, Belgium, (2010)
- Section Chair, 16th International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization, (BIWIC 2009), 9-10 September, Lappeenranta, Finland, (2009)
- Section Chair, section Analysis and Control of Crystallization Processes, International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes (ADCHEM 2009), 12-15 July, Istanbul, Turkey, (2009)
- Section Chair, section Process Control, Industrial Simulation Conference, 1-3 June, Loughborough, U.K., (2009)
- Section Chair, section Modeling and Design of Crystallization Processes, 15th International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization, (BIWIC 2008), 10-12 September, Magdeburg, Germany, (2008)
- Section Chair, section Nonlinear Predictive Control, IFAC World Congress, Seoul, Korea, July 5-11, (2008)
- Organizer and Conference Chair, British Association for Crystal Growth Annual Meeting, Loughborough, U.K., September 7-9, (2008)
- Organizer (with M Abdulwahed, RE Blanchard, E Read, E Lindsay) of the workshop on “The impact of remote and virtual laboratories in engineering education: A Workshop”, within Engineering Education 2008, Loughborough, U.K., July 15, (2008)
- Section Chair, sections Identification and Control, and Modeling and Control, 8th International IFAC Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems (DYCOPS), 6-8 June, Cancun, Mexico, (2007)
- Member of the International Scientific Committee – European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, (Escape-17), 27-30 May, Bucharest, Romania, (2007)
- Organizer and Conference Chair of the International Workshop on Nonlinear Model Based Control – Software and Applications (NMPC-SOFAP), Loughborough, U.K., April 19-20, (2007)
- Member of the International Advisory Committee – Control of Particulate Processes VII, October 29 - November 2, Canada, (2006)
- Section Chair, International Workshop on Assessment and Future Directions of Nonlinear Model Predictive Control, September, Freudenstadt-Lauterbad, Germany, (2005)
- Section Chair, Control of Complex Processes section, 16th IFAC World Congress, June, Prague, Check Republic, (2005)
- Organizer of the one-day workshop (with R. Findeisen, M. Diehl, F. Allgöwer, L. Magni), “Nonlinear Model Predictive Control: Introduction and Current Topics”, within the 16th IFAC World Congress, Prague, Check Republic, July 2, (2005)
- Organizer of the mini-course (with R. Findeisen, M. Diehl, F. Allgöwer, L. Magni), “Introduction to and Current Issues in Nonlinear Model Predictive Control”, within the NOLCOS conference, Stuttgart, Germany, August 31, (2004)
- Section Chair, Process Control Section, The 6th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, June, Orlando, USA (2002)
Links
- Z. K. Nagy's Homepage
- Pharmaceutical and Crystallisation Systems Engineering and Process Control Group’s Homepage
- ilough-lab website
Selected publications
- Z. K. Nagy and R. D. Braatz, Batch process control, in W. S. Levine (ed.) The Control Handbook, 2nd edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2010.
- E. Aamir, Z. K. Nagy, C. D. Rielly, Optimal seed recipe design for crystal size distribution control for batch cooling crystallization processes, Chemical Engineering Science, 65, 3602-3614, 2010.
- M. R. Abu Bakar, Z. K. Nagy, C. D. Rielly, Investigation of the effect of temperature cycling on surface features of sulfathiazole crystals during seeded batch cooling crystallization, Crystal Growth and Design, 10(9), 3892-3900, 2010.
- E. Aamir, Z. K. Nagy, C. D. Rielly, T. Kleinert, B. Judat, Combined quadrature method of moments and method of characteristics approach for efficient solution of population balance models for dynamic modelling and crystal size distribution control of crystallization processes, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 48 (18), 8575-8584, 2009.
- L. L. Simon, Z. K. Nagy, K. Hungerbuehler, Comparison of external bulk video imaging with focused beam reflectance measurement and ultra violet-visible spectroscopy for metastable zone identification in food and pharmaceutical crystallization processes, Chemical Engineering Science, 64, 3344-3351, 2009.
- Z. K. Nagy, Model based robust control approach for batch crystallization product design, Computers and Chemical Engineering, 33, 1685-1691, 2009.
- K. S. Howard, Z. K. Nagy, B. Saha, A. L. Robertson, G. Steele, D. Martin, A process analytical technology based investigation of the polymorphic transformations during the anti-solvent crystallization of sodium benzoate from IPA/water mixture, Crystal Growth and Design, 9, 3964-3975, 2009.
- M. R. Abu Bakar, Z. K. Nagy, A. N. Saleemi, C. D. Rielly, The impact of direct nucleation control on crystal size distribution in pharmaceutical crystallization processes, Crystal Growth and Design, 9 (3), 1378-1384, 2009.
- Z. K. Nagy, M. Fujiwara, R. D. Braatz, Modelling and control of combined cooling and anti-solvent crystallization processes, Journal of Process Control, 18, 856-864, 2008.
- Z. K. Nagy, J.W. Chew, M. Fujiwara, R. D. Braatz, Comparative performance of concentration and temperature controlled crystallizations, Journal of Process Control, 18 (3-4), 399-407, 2008.
- S. Agachi, Z. K. Nagy, M. Cristea, A. Imre, Model Based Control. Case Studies in Process Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, Weinheim, 280 pages, 2006, ISBN: 3-527-31545-4.