MechSE affiliate faculty invested as first Innoventor Professor in Engineering

6/18/2012 By Laura M. Schmitt

Illinois Professor Yuanhui Zhang (left) is pictured with Carole and Kent Schien, who endowed the Innoventor Professorship in Engineering.Agricultural and Biological Engineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang—a MechSE faculty affiliate—was invested as the first Innoventor Professor in Engineering at a campus ceremony March 4, 2011.

Written by By Laura M. Schmitt

Illinois Professor Yuanhui Zhang (left) is pictured with Carole and Kent Schien, who endowed the Innoventor Professorship in Engineering.
Illinois Professor Yuanhui Zhang (left) is pictured with Carole and Kent Schien, who endowed the Innoventor Professorship in Engineering.
Illinois Professor Yuanhui Zhang (left) is pictured with Carole and Kent Schien, who endowed the Innoventor Professorship in Engineering.
Agricultural and Biological Engineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang—a MechSE faculty affiliate—was invested as the first Innoventor Professor in Engineering at a campus ceremony March 4, 2011. An internationally known expert in biomass conversion to energy, Zhang was the first researcher to develop a hydrothermal liquefaction (or HTL) reactor and process that converts 70 percent of swine manure into a crude oil. His work has been published in numerous prestigious scientific journals and featured by mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Fox News, CNN, NBC, and the BBC.

Zhang has also made important contributions to indoor air quality research. His team has developed and continued research on aerodynamic filter-less air cleaning; and three-dimensional, near-real-time volumetric particle tracking velocimetry (VPTV) for room airflow measurement and modeling.

The Innoventor Professorship was established by MechSE alumnus Kent Schien (BS MechEngr ’81), a former member and president of the MechSE Alumni Board. “In my conversations with the department head, dean, and chancellor, I heard about the ongoing pressure that Illinois has with dwindling state funds and it appears that [trend] will continue,” Schien said. “I knew I needed to do something to help our faculty feel appreciated and encourage them to stay at Illinois. I realized industry needed to step up and help our wonderful university.”

Schien is chief executive officer of Innoventor, a progressive, entrepreneurial design-build engineering firm that he founded in the basement of his St. Louis-area home in 1996. Today Innoventor employs a multi-disciplinary team of more than 100 engineers and has a client base that includes dozens of Fortune 500 firms.


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This story was published June 18, 2012.