Richard S. H. Mah

Mah was born in Shanghai on 16 December 1934, to parents S. Fabian Soh Pai and E. Shang (Chang).[1] Mah's parents sent him to England in 1950. Mah completed a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham,[2] and received his Ph.D. in 1961 from the Imperial College London under the guidance of Roger W. H. Sargent on process systems engineering.[3] Mah became the first Ph.D. graduate from the Sargent research group.[4] Mah moved to the University of Minnesota in 1961 for his postdoctoral work.[2] Mah married Stella Lee in 1962.[2]

Mah worked for Union Carbide between 1963 and 1967, then Esso. He joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 1972 as an associate professor, and retired in 1994 as a professor.[2] Mah was a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers,[5] and received its Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, Ernest Thiele Award, and other divisional awards.[1][5] He was also awarded the American Society for Quality Jack Youden Prize.[5]

• Mah, Richard S.; Seider, Warren D., eds. (1981). Foundations of Computer-Aided Chemical Process Design. New York: Engineering Foundation. 2 volumes[6]
• Mah, Richard S. H. (1990). Chemical Process Structures and Information Flows. Butterworth.[7]

Mah died on 30 May 2004 due to a heart attack at the age of 69 in Glenview, Illinois.[5] From 2005, the department of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University held an annual Mah Memorial Lecture in his honor.[8][9]