Faculty of Sciences

Professor Yong Yan made a Fellow of Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers

Professor Yong Yan from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts (EDA) at the University of Kent has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE).

His Fellowship is in recognition of his contribution to pulverised fuel flow metering - a long standing industrial problem - and combustion flame imaging, with his research in these areas having made a significant impact on the combustion efficiency improvement and emissions reduction of coal fired power stations.

The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. It is the highest grade of membership and is recognised by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement.

Professor Sarah Spurgeon, Head of EDA, said: ‘Professor Yong Yan fully deserves this recognition from the IEEE. After many years of painstaking work and with substantial financial support from the UK government and industry, Professor Yan and his team have developed innovative particle flow instruments which are capable of measuring velocity, concentration and size distribution of particles such as pneumatically conveyed pulverised fuel.

‘The other most distinctive contribution Professor Yan has made to industry lies in combustion flame imaging. As the demand for lower atmospheric emissions and more efficient power generation increases, it is important to maintain a tight control of how the fuels are burnt. After more than 10 years meticulous work with the support of leading power generation organisations, Professor Yan and his team have developed a digital imaging based technology for the monitoring and quantitative characterisation of fossil fuel flames. This is an important development for this sector.’

Professor Yong Yan received his BEng and MSc degrees in instrumentation and control engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He became Assistant Lecturer at Tsinghua University in 1988 and joined the University of Kent in 2004. Professor Yan was awarded the Achievement Medal by the IEE in 2003 and the Engineering Innovation Prize by the IET in 2006 and the Rushlight Commendation Award in 2009. He also holds the positions of Kuang-Piu Guest Professor at Zhejiang University since 2005 and Yangtze Scholar Professor at Tianjin University since 2006.

Published: 22 December 2010

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Last Updated: 01/08/2012