dr stratos pistikopoulos professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university comes from a long and decorated history in academia pistikopoulos received the 2022 distinguished achievement award for his research efforts the first award he has earned as an aggie the association of former students presents the award to provide funds and recognize outstanding efforts in teaching research individual student relationships continuing education/extension graduate mentoring staff and administration the award is one of the highest university honors bestowed upon a faculty or staff member and pistikopoulos was one of only 24 selected throughout the university my first award with texas a&m is special because it is from my colleagues and we are in a very competitive demanding environment said pistikopoulos the award signifies that i have helped shape young minds primarily by guiding our doctoral students and post-doctoral associates i am very grateful to receive this honor pistikopoulos pursued his undergraduate degree in greece before receiving his doctoral degree from carnegie melon university he later worked for shell chemical in amsterdam before becoming a professor at imperial college london he began working for texas a&m seven years ago and is currently the texas a&m energy institute director and holds the dow chemical chair in the chemical engineering department in addition he is an affiliate member of the department of multidisciplinary engineering pistikopoulos research focuses on optimizing chemical engineering through artificial intelligence computation and applied mathematics rather than through experimentation which can be costly the computational tools his team developed can solve complex problems through analysis and simulations their software can be used in various fields from oil and gas to energy and manufacturing supply chains a key component of our research is focused on developing computer-based tools for risk management and analysis of energy transition scenarios he said companies need to determine an optimal mix of energy solutions for the future our modeling environment presents alternatives that we analyze systematically to help companies make informed energy business decisions pistikopoulos hopes to use his research ventures and career in academia to lead the way toward cleaner energy solutions i think we have an opportunity through various entities at texas a&m to be a protagonist in the energy sector as it transitions in the future he said texas controls almost over 40% of the united states energy space which provides the university a chance to shape the future of energy in the state and nationwide pistikopoulos has produced over 350 journal publications and over 250 referred conference publications he has also co-authored 15 books these resources have been cited more than 24 000 times according to google scholar his extensive work with doctoral and post-doctoral students significantly contributed to earning this award he has helped 64 doctoral students graduate throughout his career 14 of whom are from texas a&m as well as 20 post-doctorate associates six of whom are from texas a&m in addition 16 former doctoral students and nine former post-doctorates became professors including three from texas a&m they now teach at the university of wisconsin-madison the university of connecticut and west virginia university the award was formally presented to pistikopoulos on april 25