Fluid-Solid Reactions H. Y. (Distinguished Professor, Metallurgical Engineering Adjunct Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Utah, USA) Sohn

Hong Yong Sohn holds the rank of Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah, having joined the Department of Metallurgical Engineering in 1974. He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea and his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1970 from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked as a Research Engineer at Du Pont’s Engineering Technology Laboratory. Dr. Sohn has authored or co-authored 7 monographs, 19 edited books, 28 book chapters, 11 patents, some 600 papers, and 39 technical reports. He has served as a Director of TMS-AIME (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society), was a U.S. DOE Fossil Energy Lecturer, 1978–81, and is an Advisor to LS-MnM (formerly LS-Nikko Copper Inc.) of Korea and also Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM). He is an Honorary Professor of Metallurgy at the Kunming University of Science and Technology at the Anhui University of Technology, China.
Professor Sohn’s work has been recognized through various awards, which include the 2014 Educator Award from TMS; the Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award, 2012 from the University of Utah; Billiton Gold Medal, 2012 from The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the U.K.; the TMS 2009 Fellow Award “in recognition of outstanding contribution to the practice of metallurgical/materials science and technology” from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS); the TMS Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal Award (1993 “for the most notable contribution to Metallurgical Science in the 3–year period”); the TMS Extraction and Processing Science Award (1990, 1994, 1999 and 2007, respectively, for analysis of flash furnace shaft; modeling of in situ solution mining operations; synthesis of ultrafine particles of intermetallic compounds; and analysis of the influence of chemical equilibrium on fluid-solid reaction rates and the falsification of activation energy); the Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer (1983); and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award (1977). In 2006, TMS honored Dr. Sohn by holding the “Sohn International Symposium on Advanced Processing of Metals and Materials”.
Professor Sohn’s research interests have covered a wide range of subjects, such as Development of a Novel Flash Ironmaking; Plasma-Assisted Chemical Synthesis of Inorganic and Ceramic Nanomaterials; Metallurgical Process Engineering including Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling; Nonferrous metal; Fluid–Solid Reaction Engineering; Synthesis and Processing of Ceramic and Intermetallic Compounds; Hydrogen Storage Materials; Solvent Extraction. A major common theme through these research efforts has been the development and application of reaction kinetics theories, especially the engineering analysis of the reactions between solids and fluids. He coauthored a seminal monograph in the field, “Gas-Solid Reactions”, which had been a standard reference on the subject for more than 40 years: Professor Sohn recently updated and expanded the book as “Fluid-Solid Reactions” incorporating the massive amount of work he has continued on the topic since the publication of “Gas-Solid Reactions” and expanding the coverage to include reactions between a solid and a liquid. A major accomplishment by Professor Sohn in this field is the formulation of a rate law called “Sohn’s Law of Additive Reaction Times” that governs the reactions between solids and fluids that are affected by mass transfer processes.

Among the numerous plenary and keynote lectures Professor Sohn has given, he delivered a talk on “Novel Ironmaking Technology with Low Energy Requirement and CO2 Emission” to the U.S. Congress on April 21, 2008. He has also served as a technical consultant to many industrial companies, government units, and research institutes, in addition to serving on a number of editorial/advisory boards of international journals.