Conejo, Ozkan elected to National Academy of Engineering

Two Ohio State University professors have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Class of 2024 in recognition of sustained excellence in innovation and education.

Antonio Conejo and Umit Ozkan are among 135 new NAE members, bringing the total U.S. membership to 2,310 and the number of international members to 332.

“We are all extremely fortunate to collaborate with and learn from Antonio and Umit, who give so much of themselves to their profession and to Ohio State,” said College of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard. “With five new NAE members in the past two years, it is increasingly apparent that our faculty ranks among the best in the nation.”

Election to the academy is one of the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive, and honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice or education,” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.” Ohio State Professors Alan Luo, Judit E. Puskas and Longya Xu were elected in the Class of 2023.

A professor of electrical and computer engineering and integrated systems engineering, Conejo was elected “for power systems planning and electricity markets.” His research interests include control, operations, planning and economics of electric energy systems, as well as statistics and optimization theory and its applications.

Conejo has published over 240 papers in highly regarded journals, is the author or co-author of 14 books published by Springer, John Wiley, McGraw-Hill and CRC, and has supervised 25 PhD theses. He has been the principal investigator of many research projects funded by public agencies and the power industry.

A former editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Conejo has earned numerous accolades during his prolific career, including: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow; IEEE Fellow; INFORMS Fellow; and the IEEE PES Peter W. Sauer Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Comillas University, Spain, his master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Ozkan, a Distinguished University Professor, was elected “for research in electrocatalysis and elucidation of mechanisms of oxidation catalysis.”

Also chair of the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ozkan is an internationally recognized leader in thermal-catalytic and electro-catalytic manipulations of hydrocarbons. She has edited eight books, written over 250 refereed publications and book chapters, and delivered more than 350 conference presentations and 150 invited lectures in 20 different countries.

A holder of eight patents, Ozkan has served or continues to serve on the editorial boards of Catalysis Today, Journal of Molecular Catalysis, The Royal Society of Chemistry Catalysis Book Series, ACS Applied Energy Materials, Journal of Catalysis and Nature Sustainability, among several others.

Ozkan is a Fellow of AAAS, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society (ACS). In 2017, she became the first woman recipient of the ACS Energy and Fuels Division Henry H. Storch Award. Last year, she was honored with the ACS George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry as well as the North American Catalysis Society Burwell Lectureship Award.

She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and her PhD from Iowa State University.

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. Its mission is to advance the welfare and prosperity of the nation by providing independent advice on matters involving engineering and technology, and by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and public appreciation of engineering.

Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting on September 29.

View all of Ohio State's current National Academies members