People

Nikolaos “Nick” Sahinidis is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and the Gary C. Butler Family Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. His current research activities are at the interface between computer science  and operations research, with applications in various engineering and scientific areas, including: theory, algorithms, and software for global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear programs; informatics problems in chemistry and biology; process and energy systems engineering.

Sahinidis has served on the editorial boards of many leading journals and in various positions within AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers). He has also served on numerous positions within INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), including Chair of the INFORMS Optimization Society. He received an NSF CAREER award, the INFORMS Computing Society Prize, the Beale-Orchard-Hays Prize from the Mathematical Optimization Society, the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, the Constantin Carathéodory Prize, and the National Award and Gold Medal from the Hellenic Operational Research Society. Sahinidis is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of AIChE and INFORMS.

Creating Tools to Solve Unsolvable Problems

Education

1990 Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

1986 Diploma, Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Media mentions


Center of Advanced Process Decision-making

CAPD holds annual review meeting

The Annual Review Meeting of the Center for Advanced Process Decision-making, held on March 9-11, 2021, included talks by ChemE’s Larry Biegler, Chrysanthos Gounaris, Ignacio Grossmann, and Nick Sahinidis.

CMU Engineering

CMU partners with Eli Lilly on research collaboration

Carnegie Mellon and global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company have formed a research partnership to advance process systems engineering and optimization tools for accelerated product development in the pharmaceutical industry.

CMU Engineering

Optimizing processes with AI

Nick Sahinidis and his group developed a machine learning methodology that creates simple models to accurately optimize complex processes.

CAPD hosts annual meeting

The Center for Advanced Process Decision-making (CAPD) hosted its annual meeting at CMU on March 12 - 14

CMU Engineering

Dow helps students gain industrial perspective

The Dow Chemical Company launched a program called the University Partnership Initiative (UPI), investing in 11 chemical engineering departments across the country, including CMU’s, to develop the next generation of leaders in process development, energy, transportation, and consumer applications.

Optimization and Engineering

Sahinidis named editor of OPTE

ChemE’s Nick Sahinidis was named editor-in-chief of the journal Optimization and Engineering (OPTE).