Dr. Istvan Halasz

Dr. Istvan Halasz is a Principal Chemist and Special Analytical Group Supervisor at the Research and Development Center of PQ Corporation in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. He was born, educated, and started teaching/research career in Hungary. He graduated as teacher of Chemistry and Physics from the Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen, Hungary and obtained Ph. D. in Physical and Organic Chemistry from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary. In the course of 12 years academic and 21 years industrial research he developed and scaled up processes for petrochemical and fine chemical industries, explored new catalysts, fuel cell membranes and superconducting ceramics, conducted mechanistic studies on chemically and environmentally important catalytic reactions, and investigated the surface and bulk structure, acid-base character, optical properties, sorption capabilities, and other features of various metal oxides. He (co)authored 60 conference presentations, 100 scientific papers, 8 patents and edited one book. Dr. Halasz has been member, officer, and chair in several professional associations and helped to organize catalysis and zeolite related meetings. He is currently member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), North American Catalysis Society (NACS), SPIE, The Coblenz Society, Catalysis Club of Philadelphia (CCP) and the current program chair of North-East Corridor Zeolite Association (NECZA).