[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Marlin08.jpg” caption=”Thomas Marlin, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded the D.G. Fisher Award by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. File photo. “]Thomas Marlin, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded the D.G. Fisher Award by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. He received his award at a CSChE meeting in Ottawa on October 20.

The D.G. Fisher Award is presented to an individual who has made substantial contributions in the field of Systems and Control Engineering. The award is sponsored by the Suncor Energy Foundation, Shell Canada Limited and the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta.

Marlin joined the Department of Chemical Engineering as NSERC Research Professor in Industrial Process Control in 1988. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts in 1972 and then practiced engineering for 15 years in the chemical and petroleum industries where he designed and implemented control systems for chemical plants and petroleum refineries.

Marlin's research interests have focused on improved performance of dynamic systems through real-time operations optimization and process control design. He has taught university courses in process control, process analysis, problem solving, and optimization, and published a textbook on process control in the McGraw-Hill Series, which is in its second edition.

Marlin served as the visiting fellow for the 1988 Warren Centre (Australia) study on control benefits, received the McMaster President's Award for teaching in 2001, and received the 2002 Kalev Pugi Award from the Society of Chemical Industry of Canada (with J. MacGregor).