Henry Linden

Professor Linden's current research interests are in the areas of energy policy analysis; global climate change; industrial ecology; energy economics; energy resource assessment; clean coal technologies; energy conservation; gas supply and utilization; electrification of energy supply and end use; distributed generation; and the interrelationships between energy consumption, environmental values and economic and social development.

As Max McGraw Distinguished Professor, Dr. Linden also serves as Director of the IIT Energy + Power Center. In this capacity, he is responsible for the establishment of a comprehensive research and education program in sustainable global energy development. To this end, Professor Linden serves as Interim Director of IIT’s new Institute for Energy, Environment, Economics and Sustainability whose permanent director will be the occupant of the Henry R. Linden Chair in Chemical and Environmental Engineering which has an endowment of over $2 million and for whom an intensive search is underway. He was also instrumental in the development of the Energy/Environment/Economics (E3) interdisciplinary energy engineering program at IIT. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 1996, he was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame of Georgia Institute of Technology and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Energy Daily.

Earlier, he received the Henry H. Storch Award, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry, 1967; the Walton Clark Medal of The Franklin Institute, 1972; the Distinguished Service Award of the American Gas Association, 1974; the Professional Achievement Award of the Alumni Association of Illinois Institute of Technology, 1975; the Bunsen‑Pettenkofer‑Ehrentafel (award) of the Deutscher Verein des Gas‑ und Wasserfaches, e.V., 1978 ; and the Homer H. Lowry Award for Excellence in Fossil Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, 1991. He was also elected to the IIT Hall of Fame, 1982; received the Alumni Medal, IIT Alumni Association, 1995; and is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in the Midwest, and Who's Who in Science and Engineering.

Professor Linden is a member-emeritus of the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel of the Department of Energy, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and, in Britain, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Energy. He has served on many government advisory bodies from the Kennedy through the Clinton Administrations and held a Presidential appointment during the Ford Administration. He was also instrumental in shaping U.S. energy policy during and following the 1973/74 oil embargo.

He has written and lectured extensively on U.S. and world energy problems, received numerous awards for his technical and analytical work in the fossil fuel area, and has 240 publications and 27 patents to his credit. In 1991, he received the Homer H. Lowry Award for Excellence in Fossil Energy Research from the Department of Energy and in 1993 the U.S. Energy Award from the U.S. Energy Association.