R. Kandiyoti (b. Istanbul, Turkey, 1942) received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in New York (1965) and his PhD degree from Imperial College London (1969). He has served as member of academic staff in Chemical Engineering Departments of the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey, 1969-72) and Boğaziçi University (Istanbul, Turkey, 1974-80), before joining Imperial College London (1980), where he served as Professor of Chemical Engineering and co-ordinator of the Energy Engineering Group. On retirement in September 2008, he was appointed as “Distinguished Research Fellow” in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.

R. Kandiyoti has worked in the general area of fuels and energy and has authored or co-authored over 350 publications on topics relating to experimental reactor design for pyrolysis, gasification, and liquefaction, the thermochemical characterization of fossil fuels, biomass and waste, the characterization of heavy hydrocarbon liquids and the environmental aspects of power generation. He has overseen forty PhD projects. His books include "Solid Fuels and Heavy Hydrocarbon Liquids: Thermal Characterization and Analysis" [Elsevier, 2006; co-authored with A.A. Herod and K.D. Bartle], and “Fundamentals of Reaction Engineering” [Ventus Publishing, 2009, Frederiksberg, Denmark].

R. Kandiyoti’s work on the geopolitics of transnational oil and gas transmission has been summarized in several papers and a book, “Pipelines: Flowing oil and crude politics” [I.B. Tauris, 2008, London]. He has also authored a novel, “The Imperial Gate” which was published by İş Bankası Kültür Yayınlar (Istanbul, 2007).

Among others, R. Kandiyoti has served as advisor to SASOL (South Africa Synthetic Oil Co Ltd.) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. He is an Honorary Professor of Taiyuan University of Technology (Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, PRC) and Guest Professor at China Petroleum University in Tsingtao (Shandong Province, PRC). He was awarded the medal of the British Coal Utilization Research Association in 2006.