Dr Bowman, Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers, presents Professor Davis with the Chemeca medal.
The Chemeca Medal is awarded to a prominent Australian or New Zealand chemical engineer who has made an outstanding contribution, through achievement or service, to the practice of chemical engineering in its widest sense and who continues to serve the profession. Professor Davies was awarded the medal by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers (ANZFChE) in recognition of his contribution to chemical engineering over a five-decade career. Professor Davies has contributed at all levels: as a researcher, an educator and extensively within the professional bodies of IChemE, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, (AIChE), Engineering NZ, and the Royal Society Te Apārangi (New Zealand).
An alumnus of Imperial College London, UK, Professor Davies emigrated to New Zealand in 1976. Initially a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Canterbury, he moved to Industrial Research Ltd, returning to academia in 2003 when he became Professor of Particle and Process Engineering at Massey University. He was also an Associate Investigator with the Riddet Institute, New Zealand’s internationally acclaimed centre for fundamental and strategic scientific research in food.
Professor Davies has co-chaired Chemeca, was Conference Chairman for the Asia Pacific Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies (APCSEET) in 2005 and a Technical Co-Chair for the Fluidization XVI conference. He has served on the Board of IChemE in New Zealand, and on many panels for the Royal Society Te Apārangi. In 2020 he was honoured by the AIChE’s Particle Technology Forum, who bestowed on him the PSRI Fluidization and Fluid Particle Systems Award. Professor Davies retired in 2022.
The recipient of the award is invited to present a plenary at Chemeca, and Professor Davies lecture, ‘Chemical Engineering in Action: Processes, Profits, Particles, Planes, Plants’, recounted some of the influences and experiences that shaped his professional life, including joining IChemE as a student member.
Chemeca is the annual conference for the Australian and New Zealand community of chemical and process engineers and industrial chemists, and is a key opportunity for collaboration between industry and academia, sharing knowledge, experience, ideas and insights.
IChemE Chief Executive Officer Yvonne Baker who attended the award ceremony says she was delighted to congratulate Professor Davies on his very well-deserved award, following his decades of dedicated work across particle processing, flow measurement, and solids metering.
"I thoroughly enjoyed his plenary lecture. I had an immensely worthwhile visit to Chemeca, which provides an excellent platform for building new connections and strengthening existing partnerships. It was great to see academics and industry producing ideas for us all to build upon, with a fascinatingly wide variety of papers presented. I was also enthused to see early career student teams engage with interesting projects and challenges.”