Ponisseril Somasundaran

Ponisseril Somasundaran (born 28 June 1939) is an American mineral engineer of Indian origin and a LaVon Duddleson Krumb Professor of Mineral Engineering at Columbia University, New York.

Biography Ponisseril Somasundaran hails from Kerala, India, and did his graduate studies (BSc) in 1958 from the University of Kerala.

Somasundaran started his career by joining the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, as a senior laboratory assistant in 1958, where he stayed only for one year. After migrating to the US, he joined the faculty of University of California, Berkeley as a research cum teaching assistant in 1961, a job which lasted till 1964, when he moved to Illinois to work for the International Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, Libertyville, as a research engineer. reportedly fifteen books, over 700 scientific articles and holds many patents.

Somasundaran is the honorary editor-in-chief of Colloids and Surfaces, an international scientific journal published by Elsevier. He received the Antoine M. Gaudin Award in 1982 and five years later, in 1987, he received two awards, the Robert H. Richards Award and the Arthur F. Taggart Award. He has also received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (1990), Senate Leadership Citation from New Jersey senate, (1991) the Frank F. Aplan Award from the Engineering Foundation in 1992, Mill Man of Distinction Award and SME Publication Board Award Holder of the Most Distinguished Achievement in Engineering citation from AINA, Somasundaran was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri award, in 2010, when he was included in the Republic Day honours.

Somasundaran is a member of the National engineering academies of India, China and Russia and has held the positions of the Honorary Professor of Central University of Technology, China and the Honorary Research Advisor of Beijing Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Beijing.