COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Aug. 10, 2012 – M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering at Texas A&M University, has announced that M. Nazmul Karim has been named head of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, effective Sept. 1, 2012.

Karim will hold the Mike O'Connor Chair II.

Prior to joining Texas A&M, Karim was a member of the faculty at Texas Tech University, where he served as chair and holder of the Whitacre Endowed Department Chair in chemical engineering. He previously was a professor of chemical engineering at Colorado State University and has been a visiting professor at Helsinki University of Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Osaka University and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Karim's research focus is in the areas of process control and optimization theories and practice. He has been involved in biotechnology research for the past 25 years. Karim is an AIChE Fellow and serves as director of the Fuels and Petrochemical Division of AIChE. He also is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Society of Industrial Microbiology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology.