Roland Span

Roland Span studied mechanical engineering at Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) from 1983 to 1988. In 1992, he completed his Ph.D. with a thesis introducing a new reference equation of state for carbon dioxide, which is still the international standard for thermodynamic properties of carbon dioxide. In 1999, he completed his habilitation. At ALSTOM Power Technologies in Switzerland, he worked on gas-turbine related topics. In 2002, he became chair of Thermodynamics and Energy Technologies at University of Paderborn. Since 2006, he is chair of Thermodynamics at RUB. Prof. Span published numerous journal articles and monographs, including highly cited scientific papers dealing with experimental and theoretical work on thermodynamic properties and the application of corresponding models to process simulations in energy technologies. Prof. Span and his co-workers received several national and international awards; examples are the NTNU & SINTEF CCS Award 2019, an ERC Advanced Grant dealing with thermodynamic properties of hydrogen in 2022, and the Ared Cezairliyan Award 2024. In 2023, Prof. Span was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Prof. Span is member of several scientific committees, including editorial boards and advisory boards in energy technology. As member of the management board of the JP CCS of the European Energy Research Alliance, Prof. Span coordinates activities on CO2 transport. He is member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and chair of the International Advisory Board of the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Science.