Adisa Azapagić
Azapagic was born in 1961 in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.[2] She attended the University of Tuzla, and graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering.[5] She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Surrey, and earned her PhD on Environmental System Analysis using Life-cycle assessmentin 1996. [6]
Adisa holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Environmental Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Environmental Systems Analysis. She is Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science. She heads Sustainable Industrial Systems, an internationally-leading research group applying principles of sustainable development and life cycle thinking in industrial practice. Her research interests include sustainable production and consumption, life cycle sustainability assessment and corporate sustainability. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Production and Consumption published by Elsevier. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Process Safety and Environmental Protection, also published by Elsevier.
Adisa has held a number of fellowships and honorary appointments, some of which include fellowships from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UNESCO and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She was awarded the IChemE Award for Outstanding Achievements in Chemical and Process Engineering in 2010 and the GSK/CIA Innovation Award in 2011 for masterminding the CCaLC carbon footprinting tool for industry (www.ccalc.org.uk). In 2020 she was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to sustainability and carbon footprinting. For more information, visit www.sustainable-systems.org.uk.
Research interests
Adisa's research interests include sustainable production and consumption, life cycle sustainability assessment and corporate sustainability. She has over 200 publications in these areas of interest, including three books.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Awards and honours
Azapagic was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2013. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to sustainability and carbon footprinting. She was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași. She is part of the all-party manufacturing group.[18] She is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 2010 she was awarded the Institution of Chemical Engineers prize for Outstanding Achievements in Chemical and Process Engineering. She won the GlaxoSmithKline Innovation prize in 2011.
Manchester professor wins prestigious chemical engineering medal Professor Adisa Azapagic MBE has been presented with the Institution for Chemical Engineer’s (IChemE) most prestigious medal in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the sector.
The IChemE Davis Medal is awarded to an eminent individual who has rendered exceptional service to chemical engineering. Professor Azapagic is the first woman to ever be presented with the prize.
The award honours George E Davis, the founding father of the profession, and is not given more frequently than every three years; the previous medal was awarded in 2016.
The medal was presented by IChemE Past President David Bogle, prior to Professor Azapagic’s keynote lecture delivered at the European Congress of Chemical Engineering in Berlin, 18 September 2023.