USC Global Conference

Yannis C. Yortsos

Yannis C. Yortsos is dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.  He is the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean’s Chair in Engineering. Yortsos is well known for his work on fluid flow, transport and reaction processes in porous and fractured media with applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids and soil remediation.  He has been actively involved in the peer review of the Yucca Mountain Project for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

Along with his partners at Duke University and Olin College, he helped promote the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges of Engineering by co-hosting the first NAE Grand Challenges Summit at Duke University in 2009, and its follow-up at USC in 2010, and helped guide the 2013 Global Summit in London.  The first summit spawned the Grand Challenges Scholars Program for undergraduate engineering schools across the nation.

Dean Yortsos received his B.S. from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece, and his M.S. and Ph.D from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering.  He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2008 and in 2011 received the Honorary Member award of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the highest honor this society bestows upon its members. He serves on the executive committee of both the Engineering Deans Council and the Global Engineering Deans Council.