Dr. Arvind Varma is the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor and Head, School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. His research interests are in chemical and catalytic reaction engineering, and new energy sources. He has published over 260 archival journal research papers in these areas, co-authored three books (Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering, Oxford University Press, 1997; Parametric Sensitivity in Chemical Systems, Cambridge University Press, 1999; Catalyst Design: Optimal Distribution of Catalyst in Pellets, Reactors and Membranes, Cambridge University Press, 2001) and co-edited two books. He is the founding Editor (1996—present) of the Cambridge Series in Chemical Engineering, a series of textbooks and monographs published by the Cambridge University Press.

Professor Varma received his PhD degree from the University of Minnesota (1972). He has held Visiting Professorships at a number of institutions, including Caltech (Chevron Visiting Professor), Princeton, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota (Piercy Distinguished Visiting Professor), Univ of Cagliari, Italy (Visiting Chair Professor), IIT-Kanpur and UICT-Mumbai (Kane Visiting Professor; Golden Jubilee Fellow). He is the recipient of several awards for his research and teaching, including the R. H. Wilhelm Award (1993) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Chemical Engineering Lectureship Award of the American Society for Engineering Education (2000). In 2008, he was named a Fellow of AIChE; the journal I&EC Research published a Festschrift in honor of his 60th birthday (Volume 47, No. 23, 2008); and he was named a Distinguished Chemical Engineering Alumnus (inaugural batch of 3) and Distinguished Alumnus of Panjab University.

• Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering, A. Varma and M. Morbidelli, 690 + xvi pages, Oxford University Press, New York, 1997.

• Parametric Sensitivity in Chemical Systems, A. Varma, M. Morbidelli and H. Wu, 342 + xvi pages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1999; paperback 2005.

• Catalyst Design: Optimal Distribution of Catalyst in Pellets, Reactors and Membranes, M. Morbidelli, A. Gavriilidis and A. Varma, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 2001; paperback 2005.

• The Mathematical Understanding of Chemical Engineering Systems: Selected Papers of N. R. Amundson, R. Aris and A. Varma (Editors), Pergamon Press, 829 pages, 1980.

• Chemical Reaction and Reactor Engineering, J. J. Carberry and A. Varma (Editors), Marcel Dekker, 1069 pages, 1987.