Minerals Engineering International (MEI) has revealed that the recipient of the 2021 MEI Young Person’s Award is Paulina Quintanilla.
The MEI Young Person's Award is presented each year to a person under 35 who has made an outstanding contribution to minerals engineering. The winner receives an engraved award which is presented to them at an MEI conference.
MEI noted that at 29 years of age, Ms Quintanilla is an outstanding early career researcher at Imperial College, UK. She holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria (UTFSM) in Chile, where she received several awards for her excellent academic performance.
She started her PhD at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London in October 2018 under the supervision of Dr Pablo Brito-Parada. MEI stated that her background and research experience on supervisory control have been instrumental in her work towards the development of a holistic model predictive control strategy for froth flotation.
During her PhD, she has published a thorough critical review and two papers in the prestigious Minerals Engineering journal. Her PhD work represents a step change in advanced modelling for flotation control, and Dr Brito-Parada told MEI that he expects that she will finish her PhD by the end of 2022 with at least two, if not three, additional publications arising from her thesis.
She has also received excellent feedback for her presentations at several local and international conferences, including MEI’s Flotation '21 conference. There is more information about Ms Quintanilla’s achievements on Dr Barry Wills’ MEI blog.
MEI plans to present the award to her at the Process Mineralogy '22 conference in Spain in November.