
Douglas W. Fuerstenau is P. Malozemoff Professor Emeritus of Mineral Engineering in the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. He graduated in 1949 from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology with a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, followed by a M.S. degree in Mineral Dressing from the Montana School of Mines in 1950. He received his Sc.D. degree in Mineral Engineering in 1953, under Prof. A.M. Gaudin, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After teaching at MIT as an Assistant Professor and working in industry for Union Carbide as section leader in the Metals Research Laboratory and for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company as manager of Mineral Engineering, he joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1959 to teach courses and conduct research on Mineral Processing and surface properties of materials. Through his inspiration, numerous students have achieved notable distinction in careers in academia, industry and government worldwide. Over the course of his academic career, he guided the thesis research of more than 70 M.S. students and more than 60 Ph.D. students.
Prof. Fuerstenau has been actively involved with research over his entire career. His research contributions range widely over mineral processing, particle technology, and applied surface
chemistry. This includes extensive work on comminution, flotation, pelletizing, mixing of solids, surface chemistry of minerals, interfacial phenomena, environmental science and engineering, fine particle processing, applied surface and colloid chemistry and on the processing of a wide range of materials such as coal and various nonmetallic and sulfide minerals.
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976, Prof. Fuerstenau is recognized as a giant in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, and his research results are widely used and referenced extensively. Some 440 publications have resulted from his work, mostly with his graduate students. He has held leadership roles in national and international technical societies and has served on numerous advisory boards to universities, international editorial boards, Government committees and panels regarding mineral resources, and has contributed widely at the international level to resource programs. For 22 years he was a Director of Homestake Mining Company.
He was the first recipient of the International Mineral Processing Congress Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011 the Bancroft Library of the University of California published his oral history, Mineral Processing Engineer and Scientist: in Education, Research, Industry and International Cooperation. In 2014, the International Mineral Processing Council (IMPC) and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) jointly honored him with an IMPC/SME Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Mineral Processing through Teaching, Research and Professional Service.
Prof. Fuerstenau has received numerous awards from AIME and its constituent societies, starting with the Hardy Gold Medal. Among them the following are included: AIME (American Institute of Mining Engineers) Honorary Membership (1989), AIME Rossiter W. Raymond Award (1961), AIME Mineral Industry Education Award (1983), AIME Frank F. Aplan Award (1990), AIME Robert H. Richards Award (1975), Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal (1956), Antoine M. Gaudin Award (1977), Arthur Taggard Award, etc. His extensive international recognition includes such awards as the Senior American Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Society in Germany, honorary doctorates from Belgium and Sweden, and election to foreign engineering academies in Australia, India, and Russia.

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