Ignacio Grossmann
Rudolph R. and Florence Dean University Professor, Chemical Engineering
Ignacio E. Grossmann is the R. R. Dean University Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and former department head at Carnegie Mellon University. He obtained his B.S. degree at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, in 1974, and his M.S. and Ph.D. at Imperial College in 1975 and 1977, respectively. He is a member and former director of the Center for Advanced Process Decision-making, an industrial consortium that involves about 20 petroleum, chemical, engineering, and software companies. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has received the following AIChE awards: Computing in Chemical Engineering, William H. Walker for Excellence in Publications, Warren Lewis for Excellence in Education, Research Excellence in Sustainable Engineering, Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering, John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer. In 2015 he was the first recipient of the Sargent Medal by the IChemE. In 2025, Grossmann was selected as Foreign Academic of the Chemical and Physical Sciences Section of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain. He has honorary doctorates from Abo Akademi in Finland, University of Maribor in Slovenia, Technical University of Dortmund in Germany, University of Cantabria in Spain, Russian Kazan National Research Technological University, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina, Universidad de Alicante in Spain, RWTH Aachen in Germany, and Universidad Nacional del Sur in Argentina. He is a 2019 top cited scientist in Computer Science and Electronics: 53 Worldwide, 38 National. He has authored more than 700 papers, several monographs on design cases studies, the recent textbook Advanced Optimization in Process Systems Engineering, and the textbook Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design, which he co-authored with Larry Biegler and Art Westerberg. His main research interests are in the areas of discrete continuous optimization, optimal synthesis and planning of chemical processes and energy systems, and supply chain optimization. Grossmann has graduated 68 Ph.D. and 34 M.S. students.
Optimization Models and Methods
Subject to series: Ignacio Grossman
Seminar at Imperial College
Alternative Regularizations for Outer-Approximation Algorithms for Convex MINLP
Seminar for Royal Academy of Sciences, Spain
Evolution and Future Trends in Process Systems Engineering
Education
1977 Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, University of London
1975 MS, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, University of London
1974 BS, Chemical Engineering, Universidad Iberoamericana
Media mentions
Chemical Engineering
Smarter math, better power grids
Research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Chemical Engineering reveals that the mathematical shortcuts traditionally used to plan our energy grids have a blind spot.
Chemical Engineering
Optimizing for early success in research
Research in process systems engineering, recognized by AIChE's Outstanding Young Researcher Award, led Carnegie Mellon alumni to careers in higher education.
U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group
Grossmann co-chairs conference on North American supply chain
ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann is serving as co-chair of From Resilience to New Opportunities: Building the North American Supply Chain of the Future.
Grossmann and Torres contribute to book on optimization
ChemE faculty Ignacio Grossmann and Ana Torres and alumna Seolhee Cho are among the contributors to a new book, Optimization of Sustainable Process Systems: Multiscale Models and Uncertainties.
Chemical Engineering
Industry collaboration yields top Optimization and Engineering paper
Ignacio Grossmann, Dev Kakkad (‘22), and their co-authors receive the Howard Rosenbrock Prize for an algorithm that makes optimization models more explainable.
Rice University
Grossmann delivers Shell Lecture at Rice University
ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann was a featured speaker in the Shell Lecture Series at Rice University. He gave an overview of modeling and computational challenges in approaches to optimizing industrial plants and supply chains.
Mexican Society of Operations Research
Grossmann addresses Mexican Society of Operations Research
ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann gave a plenary talk at the 2025 Congress of the Mexican Society of Operations Research in Leon, Mexico on the role of optimization techniques on digital supply chains.
CMU Engineering
Finding the best decarbonization pathways for refineries
A decision-making tool from the Center for Advanced Process Decision-making predicts the best strategy for an oil refinery to implement decarbonization technologies.
ScholarGPS
Grossmann ranked on ScholarGPS
ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann was ranked #10 in chemical engineering for 2024 on ScholarGPS.
Chemical Engineering
Alum spotlight: Vikas Goel
Whether in the oil and gas industry or at one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in India, Vikas Goel (‘05) applies data science and AI to make better decisions under uncertainty.
Grossmann named Foreign Academic
ChemE’s Ignacio Grossmann was selected as a Foreign Academic of the Chemical and Physical Sciences Section of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Spain.
Chemical Engineering
Alum spotlight: Yingkai Song
Yingkai Song (‘16) applies mathematical optimization to help decision-makers in the aviation industry determine when to fly, delay, or cancel certain flights while meeting customer demand.