Page 23 - New Trends In Coal Conversion

xxii Biographies

Mercedes Díaz Somoano is a tenured scientist at the National Institute of Coal in
Spain. She received her PhD degree in chemistry from the University of Oviedo
(Spain) in 2001. After finishing her PhD she was awarded with a European Marie
Curie fellowship for 2 years of postdoctoral stay in Stuttgart (Germany). After that,
she returned to Spain. She got funding for short stays at the University of Sheffield
and the Imperial College of London. She is author and co-author of over 70 SCI
journal papers and 1 book chapter. Her research interest is related to trace element
emissions during coal conversion processes and the minimization of their impact on
the environment. Her research work has been awarded with several distinctions
from the University of Oviedo, the Official College of Chemists in the region, and
Hunosa Chair. She is the actual deputy director of INCAR-CSIC.

Richard A. Pearson comes from a background in computers and software, obtaining a
BSc from the University of Victoria in Computer Science. Prior to joining the family
company, Rich spent 4 years working in the software industry travelling the world and
supporting mobile workforce management software. He has been working at Pearson
Coal Petrography for 14 years, during which time he has developed automated micro-
scopy systems for analyzing coal, coke, and other carbons. He is an active member of
ASTM D05, initiated and continues to aid in the review of petrographic standards for
the ASTM community, and a member of the International Committee for Coal and
Organic Petrology (ICCP).

Roberto Garcia is a tenured scientist of the Instituto Nacional del Carb on (INCAR),
belonging to the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), since 1997. He graduated in
Organic Chemistry from the University of Oviedo in 1986 and that same year he joined
the INCAR for his doctoral thesis entitled “Supercritical extraction and pyrolysis of
coals. Desulfurization and characterization of the products,” presented at the Univer-
sity of Oviedo, in 1991. He made a postdoctoral stay at the University of Strathclyde
(Glasgow, UK), under the supervision of Prof. Colin E. Snape, from 1991 to 1993,
working in the study of coals and derivatives by solid-state NMR and the analysis
of their sulfur forms by temperature-programmed reduction. Since his return to
INCAR in 1993 his research has developed in the field of carbon materials and their
precursors and the study of pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
and trace metals, derived from coal conversion processes. For a year, between 2003
and 2004, he stayed at the University of Nottingham (UK) working on the determina-
tion of carbon isotope ratios of PAHs released from coal.

Seiji Nomura is general manager and head of division of Ironmaking Research
Laboratory, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, and holds an MSc degree
in chemical engineering from Tokyo University and a PhD in chemistry from the
University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He started his career as a researcher in Ironmaking
R&D division of Nippon Steel in 1989 and worked as a manager of the cokemaking
plant at Nagoya works. He has been in the present position since 2012. He is an author
or co-author of around 100 papers and 150 patents. He also won several prizes for his
technical contribution, such as Josef S. Kapitan AwarddCoke (2007) and AIST