Dr. Mohammad R. Hajaligol is a senior principal scientist providing guidance and direction to a variety of research and technology development projects at Philip Morris USA. Mohammad received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Sharif (Arya-Mehr) University of Technology (Iran) in 1974, and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Combustion and Fuel Engineering) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. While studying at MIT, he advanced his knowledge in food science and technology. After his Ph.D., Hajaligol worked as the chair and professor of chemical engineering at the Isfahan University of Technology, and as a consultant to several petrochemical industries in his native country. He returned to the U.S. in 1985 and worked as a research engineer at MIT for two and a half years. Hajaligol has been with Philip Morris since 1988, and participated in a wide variety of R&D projects bringing in his expertise in thermo-fluid science, simulation and processing technology. He coordinated various internal and external R&D activities including those related to basic research in combustion, processing of iron aluminides and the use of iron aluminide as a heater material for the electrically heated cigarette. Hajaligol directed an extensive and multidimensional research program on combustion at Philip Morris USA in the New Technology Research. He has been an invited speaker at technical meetings and universities and has given tens of presentations at technical symposia. He received one R&D100 award, about 40 U.S. patents and published over 100 papers.
