HOF Citations 2016 Concentration - Dr D R Nagraj | Page 2

CONCENTRATION

Nag obtained his Doctorate from Columbia
University in Mineral Engineering & Applied Surface
Chemistry in 1979; M.Sc in Electro-hydrometallurgy
and B.Eng (Metallurgy) from Indian Institute of
Science in 1974 and 1972; and B.Sc (Chemistry)
from Bangalore Univ, India in 1969. He joined
American Cyanamid (then becoming Cytec
Industries and now Solvay) in 1979. His main focus
at Solvay is Research and Development of new
reagents for the mineral
industry. He has received
many special recognition
awards and three major
awards, most notably the
Mining Lantern Award for
outstanding career
contributions at Cytec, and
twice the Circle of
Excellence awards for
specific scientific
achievements. In 2015 he
was promoted to the position
of Principal Research Fellow
in recognition of his long
time achievements as a
scientist and a technologist.
He has a strong background in organic/analytical/
coordination chemistry, minerals processing,
hydrometallurgy, water-soluble polymers, surface
and colloid chemistry, applied electrochemistry, and
statistics/expe rimental design. He is well known in
the industry for his expertise in the area of flotation
reagents, plant process diagnostics and problem
solving, and in fundamental chemistry aspects of
mineral separations. He holds 23 patents and has
published 85 papers. Nag has mentored over 30
summer interns and university exchange students
and is well known in both the industry and the
academic world. He has successfully transferred
fundamental knowledge to practice. He has served
on several doctoral dissertation committees. In
addition to presenting his work in the academic
circles, he has lectured extensively in most of the
major mineral processing companies around the world.
Nag has more than 35 years of outstanding and
innovative achievements in the design, development
and commercialisation of numerous families of novel
flotation reagents and in advancing the art and
science of flotation agents. The reagents developed
by him brought unprecedented dose-efficiency, and
are now in use at multiple mining operations around
the world. This has led to significantly reduced
reagent footprint at mining operations. He has also
developed many organic and polymeric complexing
agents for the removal of toxic metals from effluents
and process streams.
He has conducted many workshops in the industry
on a variety of minerals processing topics, and
particularly on the fundamental and practical
aspects of flotation reagent chemistry and
applications. One of his notable contributions to the
field of flotation reagents has been in bringing a
rational scientific basis for reagent design for

mineral separations. He is well known for his
pioneering work in the use of SIMS surface analysis
technique to solve many long-standing problems in
minerals processing plants. He used the Insights
gained from these studies to develop new flotation
reagents. Nag has also written several popular
papers with a highly critical analysis, and these have
served to dispel the myriad misconceptions in
flotation practice and to provide practical guidelines
for plant operators. Recently he developed a holistic
approach to reagent selection and optimisation in
flotation. The concepts developed are applicable to
many complex mineral processing systems.
He has been an active member of SME since 1974.
He was a member of the MPD Executive Committee
and served as committee chair in 2009. He has
actively served in the MPD Fundamentals
Committee for 15 years; was Chairman of this
committee in 1998; has presented papers,
organised and chaired sessions regularly at SME,
and in International conferences. Nagaraj was
invited to present keynote lectures at the 2008
International Mineral Processing Congress in
Brisbane and 2015 Flotation Conference in Cape
Town. He has also participated in many regional
SME meetings. He introduced many new sessions
in the SME annual meetings with a view to bridge
the gap between fundamental research and practice.
He served on the Taggart Award committee. He is a
recipient of the Gaudin Award of the Mineral
Processing Division of the SME in 2005, and the
Frank. F. Aplan Award of the AIME in 2005. Nagaraj
served as the Co-Editor in Chief of the International
Journal of Mineral Processing (IJMP) from
2007-2014, and continues to be a regular reviewer
of papers for Minerals and Metallurgical Processing,
IJMP, Minerals Engineering, Colloid and Surface
Science. Nag was a regular contributor for many
years to the Annual Review issue of Mining
Engineering.

[1] Nagaraj, D.R. (1987) in Reagents in Mineral Technology,
P. Somasundaran and B. M. Moudgil. Ch. 9: 257-334.
[2] Nagaraj, D.R. (2005) Minerals Engineering 18(2): 151-158.
[3] Brinen, J.S., S. Greenhouse, D R. Nagaraj and J. Lee (1993)
IJMP 38(1–2): 93-109
[4] Nagaraj, D.R. and J.S. Brinen (1996) Colloids and Surfaces A:
Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 116(3): 241-249.
[5] Nagaraj, D.R., M.E. Lewellyn, S.S. Wang, P.A. Mingione and
M.J. Scanlon (1988) New sulphide and precious metals collectors for acid,
neutral and mildly alkaline circuits. XVI IMPC, Sweden
[6] Wang, S.S. and D.R. Nagaraj (1990) Allyl thiourea polymers,
US4902765A
[7] Nagaraj, D.R. and P.V. Avotins (1988) Proceedings 2nd International
Minerals Processing Symposium, Izmir, Turkey. U.I.Y. Aytekin, and
M. Akdag.: 399
[8] Nagaraj, D. R. (2008) Novel dithiocarbamate collectors and their use in
the beneficiation of mineral ore bodies US2008185317(A1)

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