The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) doesn’t elect many members from outside the country. But School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Professor John Crittenden is one of six who’s joining this year.
Overall, fewer than 6 percent of the academy’s 807 members hail from outside of China, so it’s a rare honor for Crittenden. And it’s the highest academic title for the field of engineering in that country.
"I am deeply honored to be inducted into the Chinese Academy of Engineering," said Crittenden, director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems at Georgia Tech. "It is my hope that through my involvement in the CAE, I may work with my colleagues to further the development of sustainable cities that will benefit, not only the coming generations of the people of China, but all the future city-dwellers in our rapidly urbanizing world."
CAE extends membership to prominent scientists from other countries in an effort to bolster international collaboration in engineering, science and technology. And the academy only installs new lifelong members—from China or elsewhere—every two years.
Crittenden will be inducted into CAE in early June in Beijing, the culmination of a whirlwind tour of China.
Crittenden starts at the International Conference on Engineering Science and Technology. Then he speaks at the 30th anniversary of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University. Afterward, he joins a dozen Georgia Tech faculty members at a meeting of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences. Then it’s on to Northeast Normal University to establish a collaboration on chemical oxidation processes for water treatment.
Crittenden is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the United States and has been selected as one the 100 preeminent chemical engineers of modern times by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).