We are very pleased to announce that Professor Carl Laird has joined the PSE Group and CAPD in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His appointment is effective August 1, 2021. Prof. Carl Laird brings significant industrial experience in process simulation and modeling, and his research expertise includes optimization formulations for product design and manufacturing, process design and operations, safety systems design, and integrated infrastructures. His internationally recognized research program is well-known for contributions in nonlinear programming and high-performance computing techniques for large-scale optimization. Recent research is expanding into tailored solution approaches for global optimization and MINLP problems, and integration of machine learning and optimization. His research group will continue to focus on development of open-source software for effective modeling and solution of industrial applications.

Carl Laird has received several awards, including the INFORMS Computing Society Prize in 2019, the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (AIChE CAST Division) in 2015, and the National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2010. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and his PhD from CMU (2006) under the direction of Larry Biegler. Carl Laird has been a faculty member at Texas A&M and Purdue University before he joined Sandia National Laboratories as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff, which is his current position. "I am very excited to be joining Carnegie Mellon, the PSE group, and the CAPD. The group has a long history of excellence, and a significant part of that is due to the participation and guidance provided by members of the CAPD. I am eager to meet everyone, develop collaborations, and grow a research program to address emerging industrial needs."