An emeritus faculty member and former dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at Brigham Young University is the recipient of the 2002 Homer Lowry Award, the U.S. Department of Energy's most prestigious award for fossil fuel science and technology.
L. Douglas Smoot will be honored for his research in computer modeling of fossil fuel combustion, which has led to groundbreaking insights into how air pollutants are formed.
"Dr. Smoot has championed the use of computational fluid dynamics to understand better the complex chemistry that occurs when fossil fuels burn," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "Throughout the world, industrial and academic institutions are using the computer programs he helped develop."
"In short, Americans are breathing cleaner air today due in large part to the brilliance of Dr. Smoot's computer models and his advocacy of computer modeling throughout the fossil fuel industry," said Abraham.
Smoot is a chemical engineer who earned dual bachelor degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering in 1957 from BYU as well as a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Washington in 1960. After serving as an assistant professor at BYU for three years, he joined Lockheed Propulsion Company before rejoining the BYU faculty in 1967.
He is the founding director of the Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center at BYU and the University of Utah.
Smoot will be presented the award during a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 9.
