Juan H. Vera is Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He received his doctorate (Ing. Quim.) from Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Chile, and his Master of Science in chemical engineering from University of California, Berkley. He coauthored the first edition of this book, a manual on copper metallurgy (in Spanish), a module in Elsevier Encyclopedia, co-edited the book "Ionic Surfactants and Aqueous Solutions. Biomolecules, Metals and Nanoparticles." (de Gruyter, 2018), and authored more than 200 refereed publications in international journals. He has an international patent on extraction of proteins and a Canadian patent on extraction of heavy metals.
During her more than 30-year academic career Grazyna Wilczek-Vera, a chemist, taught and conducted research in various areas of thermodynamics at various universities. She served as Faculty Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry, as Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and as Adjunct at the Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Poland. She received the Principal's Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2008, at McGill University. She received her Doctorate in Chemical Sciences (with Distinction), and Master of Science in Chemistry (with Distinction), from the University of Warsaw. She has authored 60 refereed publications in journals, given 38 conference presentations, and coauthored 3 books.
Claudio Olivera-Fuentes is Professor Emeritus in the Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena Department and Coordinator of Applied Sciences and Engineering in the Dean's Office of Research and Development at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela. He received his Chemical Engineering degree from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile, and his M. Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. He has been Invited Researcher at University of Concepción, Chile, and Visiting Scholar at University of Pennsylvania. He has authored over 120 publications in conference proceedings and scientific journals, three book chapters, and one textbook on vector and tensor analysis applied to Transport Phenomena. Among other recognitions, he received the 2003 Procter & Gamble of Venezuela Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the 2016 Simón Rodríguez Award for Lifetime Academic Achievement.
Constantinos Panayiotou is Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He received his Doctorate (PhD) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and at Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Lausanne, Switzerland and was Otto Monsted Professor at DTU, Denmark. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, ten book chapters, two textbooks and has served in editorial boards of ACS and Elsevier Journals.
