Levec, Janez

Janez Levec, rojen 23. oktobra 1943 v Začretu pri Celju, dr. znanosti, mag., univ. dipl. ing. kem. tehn., redni prof. za kemijsko inženirstvo na Fakulteti za kemijo in kemijsko tehnologijo Univerze v Ljubljani in vodja Laboratorija za katalizo in kemijsko reakcijsko inženirstvo pr Kemijskemu institute v Ljubljani.

L. 1962 je maturiral na kemijskem odseku tehniške srednje šole v Ljubljani. Po enoletni zaposlitvi na Kemijskem inštitutu B. Kidrič je nadaljeval študij kemijske tehnologije na FNT v Ljubljani, kjer je diplomiral l. 1968. Podiplomski študij kemijske tehnologije je končal l. 1970, dve leti kasneje pa promoviral za doktorja kemijskih znanosti. V letih 1968-70 je bil najprej zaposlen na Inštitutu B. Kidrič, kasneje pa v razvojnem oddelku tovarne Lek. L. 1971 se je zaposlil na Oddelku za kemijo FNT, kjer je bil izvoljen za asistenta pri katedri za kemijsko inženirstvo. L. 1974 je bil izvoljen za docenta s področja kemijskega inženirstva, l. 1979 za izrednega in l. 1984 za rednega profesorja. Na Kemijskem inštitutu je od l. 1985 tudi vodja Laboratorija za katalizo in kemijsko reakcijsko inženirstvo. V študijskih l. 1974/75 in 1981/82 se je izpopolnjeval na oddelku za kemijsko inženirstvo Kalifornijske univerze v Davisu, poleti 1984 pa še dva meseca na oddelku za kemijsko inženirstvo državne univerze v Severni Karolini (Raleigh) ter l. 1989 6 mesecev delal na Univerzi v Erlangenu. Imel je več kot dvajset vabljenih predavanj na ameriških, evropskih in japonskih univerzah (med drugimi UC Berkeley, University of Houston, Washington University, Imperial College, TU München, ETH, Tokyo Institute of Technology). Predaval je tudi v razvojnih oddelkih večjih industrijskih družb kot so Mobil, Exxon, Catalytica, Rhône-Poulenc, KTI-Mannesmann, Ciba-Geigy, HANWHA (J. Koreja). V l. 1977-80 in 1985-88 je vodil projekta ameriške Nacionalne znanstvene fondacija (NSF), ki sta obravnavala hidrodinamiko kapalnega reaktorja, v l. 1991-92 ter 1994-96 pa projekta Evropske unije na področju katalitske oksidacije organskih snovi v industrijskih odpadnih vodah. Bil je strokovni svetovalec pri Kinetics Technology International iz Rima (reakcijsko inženirstvo) in Süd Chemie iz Münchena (katalizatorji). Je bil tajnik Slovenskega kemijskega društva (1978-86), predsednik jugoslovanskega Komiteja za kemijsko inženirstvo (1988-91), nacionalni koordinator raziskovalnega polja Tehniška kemija (1992-96), podpredsednik (1993-98) in predsednik (1998-2000) Sveta za tehniške znanosti in tehnološki razvoj pri MZT. Je vrsto let član mednarodnega svetovalnega odbora pri Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, Peking in član uredniških odborov International Journal of Chemical Engineering (New York) in International Review of Chemical Engineering (Wantag, NY), sicer pa stalni recenzent pri vodilnih revijah s področja kemijskega inženirstva kot so AIChE Journal (New York), Chemical Engineering Science (Oxford), Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (Washington DC), Journal of Catalysis in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental (Laussane) idr. Je član znanstvenih odborov prestižnih mednarodnih konferenc s področja kemijskega reakcijskega inženirstva.

Za izrednega člana SAZU je bil izvoljen 27, maja 1997, za rednega 12. junija 2003; od 6. maja 2008 je načelnik Oddelka za tehniške vede III. razreda SAZU.

Skupaj s sodelavci je objavil več kot 90 originalnih del v mednarodni recenzirani periodiki. Odmevnost in aktualnost dela ter uporabnost raziskav se odražajo v visoki citiranosti, ki je do konca leta 2011 že presegla 2900, tako da je povprečno število citatov na publikacijo okoli 32 (h-indeks-WoS: 35). Zelo odmevne so predlagane korelacije za napoved transportnih koeficientov, deleža zadrževane tekočine in padec tlaka v sloju katalizatorja, v zadnjem času pa so k dvigu citiranosti njegovih del prispevali rezultati oksidacije organskih spojin v vodnih raztopinah v prisotnosti trdnega katalizatorja ali brez njega. Pomembnejši tehnološki dosežek je proces za oksidacijo organskih polutantov v industrijskih odpadnih vodah, ki se izvaja bodisi v trifaznem kapalnem reaktorju ali dvofaznem bisekcijskem reaktorju in je zaščiten s štirimi mednarodnimi patenti.

Longitudinal and lateral thermal dispersion in packed bed. Part I: Theory. Part II: Comparison between theory and experiment. AIChE Journal, 1985, vol. 31, str. 581-602 (J. Levec, R. G. Carbonell).
Catalytic oxidation of organics in aqueous solution: I. Kinetics of phenol oxidation. J. Catal., 1992. vol. 135, str. 345-357 (A. Pintar, J. Levec).
On the kinetics of phenol oxidation in supercritical water. AIChE Journal, 1996, vol. 42, str. 1977-1984 (M. Krajnc, J. Levec).
Wet oxidation of an azo dye: Lumped kinetics in batch and mixed flow reactors, AIChE Journal, 1999, vol. 45, str. 2571-2579 (J. Donlagič, J. Levec).
Hydrodynamics of trickling flow in packed beds: Relative permeability concept. AIChE Journal, 2002, vol. 48, str. 731-738 (A. Lakota, J. Levec, R.G. Carbonell).
Flow through packed bed reactors: 2. Two-phase concurrent downflow. Chem. Eng. Sci., 2005, vol. 60, str. 6958-6970 (D. Nemec, J. Levec).
Arrangement and Process for Oxidizing an Aqueous Medium, United States Patent, 5,928,521, July 21, 1999.

Je član American Institute of Chemical Engineers, izredni član (1975), redni član (od 1982), član Evropske federacije za kemijsko inženirstvo - delovna skupina za reakcijsko inženirstvo (od 1979) in bil v l. 1996 član New York Academy of Sciences.

Prejel je tri skupinske nagrade sklada Borisa Kidriča (1977, 1978 in 1985) ter Kidričevo nagrado za vrhunske raziskovalne dosežke l. 1988. V l. 1981/82 je prejel štipendijo Fulbrightovega sklada (Senior Fellow), v l. 1989 pa štipendijo (Fellow) Evropske unije DG-XII. L. 1994 je prejel nagrado Nacionalne akademije znanosti ZDA za pripravo skupnega ameriško-slovenskega programa COBASE na University of Houston. L. 1996 mu je Ministrstvo za znanost in tehnologijo podelilo priznanje Ambasador Republike Slovenije za znanost. L. 2009 je prejel Veliko Preglovo nagrado za raziskovalno delo Kemijskega inštituta v Ljubljani.

(januar 2012)

Bibliografija raziskovalca

Janez Levec, born October 23, 1943 in Celje, PhD, Dipl. Eng., Professor of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana and head of Laboratory for catalysis and reaction engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC).
Having completed his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering (1968) he continued graduate studies at UL and finished his PhD in 1972. In years 1968-70 he was employed at Lek pharmaceutical company as an R&D engineer and took research assistant position at the Department of chemical engineering UL in 1971. In 1974 he was elected assistant, in 1979 associate, and in 1984 full professor of chemical engineering. In 1985 he was nominated as a head of Laboratory for catalysis and reaction engineering at NIC. In years 1974/75 and 1981/82 he worked as a research fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering, UC Davis. In 1984 he joined a research group at NCSU (Raleigh) for two months and had worked later (1989) for six months at the Erlangen University.
Levec had been invited as a plenary speaker in many international conferences and had delivered lectures at more than 30 prominent universities (e.g. University of Houston, University of California at Berkeley, Tokyo Institute of Technology, ETH) and R&D divisions of leading chemical and petrochemical industries (e.g. Bayer A.G., Catalytica, CIBA-Geigy, Rhône-Poulenc, Exxon, Mobil, Hanwha). In years 1977-80 and 1985-88 he led two projects of the National Science Foundation (NSF) dealing with trickle bed reactor hydrodynamics. In the periods 1991-92 and 1994-96 he conducted a research on oxidation of organic pollutants in waste waters for EU framework programs. He had been acting as a scientific advisor for Kinetics Technology International (KTI), Süd Chemie, and Lek. Among other administrative obligations he served as a Secretary of the Slovenian Chemical Society (1978-86), President of the Yugoslav Committee of Chemical Engineering (1988-91), vice-president (1993-98) and president (1998-00) of the Council for Engineering Sciences at the Ministry of Science and Technology. He has been acting as a member of editorial boards of Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, International Journal of Chemical Engineering, and International Review of Chemical Engineering, and serving many prominent journals as a reviewer (AIChE J., Chemical Engineering Science, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, Journal of Catalysis, Applied Catalysis B Environment) and as a member of scientific committees of many prestigious international conferences in the field.
He was elected associate member of SAZU on May 27, 1997, and member on June 12, 2003. Levec is a head of Technical Sciences sub-section at SASA.
Levec has authored over 90 original technical papers in refereed international journals, over 40 international conference papers, and six contributions in monographs. He is author of three (3) European and one (1) US Patents. His papers have been cited for more than 2900 times (h-index: 35). His correlations for predicting pressure drops and liquid hold ups in trickle bed reactors as well as his pioneering works on oxidation of organics pollutants in industrial waste waters are among the most cited.
Longitudinal and lateral thermal dispersion in packed bed. Part I: Theory. Part II: Comparison between theory and experiment. AIChE Journal, 1985, vol. 31, str. 581-602 (J. Levec, R. G. Carbonell).
Catalytic oxidation of organics in aqueous solution: I. Kinetics of phenol oxidation. J. Catal., 1992. vol. 135, str. 345-357 (A. Pintar, J. Levec).
On the kinetics of phenol oxidation in supercritical water. AIChE Journal, 1996, vol. 42, str. 1977-1984 (M. Krajnc, J. Levec).
Wet oxidation of an azo dye: Lumped kinetics in batch and mixed flow reactors, AIChE Journal, 1999, vol. 45, str. 2571-2579 (J. Donlagič, J. Levec).
Hydrodynamics of trickling flow in packed beds: Relative permeability concept. AIChE Journal, 2002, vol. 48, str. 731-738 (A. Lakota, J. Levec, R.G. Carbonell).
Flow through packed bed reactors: 2. Two-phase concurrent downflow. Chem. Eng. Sci., 2005, vol. 60, str. 6958-6970 (D. Nemec, J. Levec).
Arrangement and Process for Oxidizing an Aqueous Medium, United States Patent, 5,928,521, July 21, 1999.

(January 2012)