Praveen Linga height - How tall is Praveen Linga?

A novel method to capture carbon dioxide is to employ the hydrate-based gas separation (HBGS) process from pre-combustion and post combustion streams where water is used as a solvent to capture it. Linga and his group have worked extensively on this topic with more than 30 journal publications on this process. Linga and his group’s finding that inter-particle pore space is a key property to enhance the kinetics of hydrate formation enabled them to test, validate and report a very cheap and reliable material (polyurethane foam) as a porous medium for the HBGS process with enhanced kinetics. On the fundamental level, their group evaluated the performance of a number of promoters for HBGS process including tetrahydrofuran, cyclopentane, and many semi-clathrate formers.

Recently, Linga and his group demonstrated engineering innovation for Solidified Natural Gas (SNG) technology via clathrate hydrate for natural gas storage. About 95% of Singapore’s power needs are met by natural gas-powered power plants and all of the natural gas is imported. Hence, Linga and his group embarked on developing the SNG technology as proof-of-concept and demonstrated its viability for a large scale stable stationary storage. Their group were the first to report a synergism between methane/tetrahydrofuran that rapidly enhances the kinetics of hydrate formation. His research group was the first in the world to demonstrate the long-term storage of SNG pellets for several months. Linga has published more than 20 journal papers, secured 1 patent and co-founded a one spin-off company (NewGen Gas Pte Ltd) on the SNG technology.

In 2018, Clarivate Analytics named him as one of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds and Highly Cited Researchers in Engineering. This highly anticipated highly cited researchers annual list identifies scientists and social scientists who produced multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication, demonstrating significant research influence among their peers. Linga is one of the recipients of the 2019 SCEJ Award for Outstanding Asian Researcher and Engineer. This prestigious award is given annually to individuals who have accomplished outstanding achievements in chemical engineering in Asia by the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (SCEJ). In 2017, he was awarded the Donald W. Davidson Award at the 9th International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH9) held in Denver USA for his outstanding contributions to gas hydrate research. He was awarded the prestigious Young Researcher Award (YRA) in NUS in 2017. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in United Kingdom.

For his teaching, he received the Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) in 2017 from National University of Singapore. ATEA is awarded to faculty members who have displayed a high level of commitment to their teaching for the year under review.

In 2010, he started his academic career at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering specializing in gas hydrates technology. In 2016, he was appointed as an Associate Professor with tenure and in 2019, he was appointed as the Dean's Chair Associate Professor. He is also a visiting professor of Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion Chinese Academy of Sciences, PR China, a visiting guest professor of Harbin Engineering University, PR China and a visiting professor of Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India.

Linga was born on April 21, 1979 in Chennai, India. His father was an agriculturist. During his primary years of education, up to 3rd standard, he went to St. Mary's Home Matriculation School in Kothagiri, Tamil Nadu, India. From 6th to 12th standard, he studied at Infant Jesus Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Manali New Town, Chennai, India. He obtained his Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from Sriram Engineering College affiliated to the University of Madras in 2000. He then went on to pursue his Master of Technology degree at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and graduated in 2002. In 2004, he joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of British Columbia to pursue his doctoral studies. Under the supervision of Professor Peter Englezos, he obtained his doctoral degree in 2009. He did his Postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of British Columbia for a year (2009-2010). He was the first in his family's lineage to pursue post graduation in education.