2013 Honors Ceremony Highlights at AIChE's Annual Meeting [On Location]


Every year, Institute and Board of Directors' Awards are presented at the AIChE Honors Ceremony. These are AIChE's most prestigious awards, honoring eminent chemical engineers for career accomplishments, service to society, and service to the Institute. The 2013 Ceremony was held at AIChE's Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Current president Phil Westmoreland presented the Board of Director Awards.

See a full list of awards presented at this event.

Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering

This year's Founders Award recipient was Ronald W. Rousseau, an AIChE Fellow and Professor and Silas Endowed Chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mr. Rousseau has promoted the discipline of chemical engineering through contributions encompassing education, research, scholarship, and leadership that have expanded the definition and application of our field.

Learn more about this award.

F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award for Service to the Institute

This award, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, is presented to Neil Yeoman for a lifetime of service to the chemical engineering community and the chemical engineering profession.

In addition to helping to establish the Separations Division, he has been very active in the membership, admissions, and the Virtual Local Section.

Learn more about this award.

Phil thanked and and introduced the current chair of AIChE's Awards Selection Committee, Nicholas Peppas of The University of Texas at Austin, who worked tirelessly with the committee to recognize AIChE's outstanding engineers.

Nicholas shared that AIChE's awards have existed for 77 years, since 1936. He then introduced Kristi Anseth, who has served as vice chair of the Awards Selection Committee and will now take over as chair. Nicholas Peppas then presented the Institute Awards.

The Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Institute

The Allan P. Colburn Award is the second oldest award of AIChE and was established in 1945. Sponsored by DuPont, this year's 79th recipient of the award is Dr. Jeetain Mittal, the P. C. Rossin Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Lehigh University.

Dr. Mittal is responsible for pioneering the development of accurate physics-based protein models and for elucidation of biomolecular folding and assembly behavior in a crowded cell-like environment and near bio-nano interfaces.

Learn more about this award.

Professional Progress Award for Outstanding Progress in Chemical Engineering

Air Products is the sponsor of this award, established in 1948, which recognizes outstanding progress in chemical engineering by an AIChE member under the age of 45. This year's award is presented to Dr. Kelvin H. Lee, the Gore Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute at the University of Delaware.

Kelvin was recognized for the development of pioneering proteomics theory and technologies and their application to systems biotechnology in cell-culture engineering and human-health diagnostics.

Learn more about this award.

Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research

Sponsored by the Alpha Chi Sigma Educational Foundation and established in 1966, this award is presented to Dr. Michael Tsapatsis, Professor and Amundson Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota.

Michael was honored for breakthrough contributions in the design, synthesis, and applications of molecular sieve membranes, adsorbents, and hierachical catalysts.

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The R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering

Sponsored by ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company, this award is presented to Dr. Liang-Shih Fan, Distinguished University Professor, the C. John Easton Professor in Engineering, and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Fan was honored for sustained and lasting contributions to multiphase reaction engineering and for pioneering work on ground-breaking clean energy technologies.

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The Industrial Progress Award

Recognizing significant contributions by an individual under the age of 40 and working in industries served by chemical engineers, the 2013 Industrial Progress Award is presented to Dr. Srinivas Tummala, Senior Principal Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Dr. Tummala was recognized for contributions to Quality by Design process development of small-molecule active pharmaceutical compounds in the areas of reaction science and model-based design space development.

Learn more about this award.

The Industrial Research and Development Award

The Industrial Research and Development Award recognizes individuals or teams working in the industries served by chemical engineers, for innovation that has resulted in the successful commercial development of new products and/or new processes for making useful products.

The fourth recipient of this award was Dr. Steven R. Lustig, Principal Investigator at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, Delaware. He was honored for outstanding contributions in the application of chemical engineering in industrial materials engineering research and development.

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The Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology

Sponsored by Praxair, this award was established in 1993 and recognizes sustained excellence in contributing to the advancement of technology in the production, distribution, and application of industrial gases. The 20th recipient of this award is Dr. Donald R. Paul, the Ernest Cockrell, Sr. Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Paul was honored for contributions to the scientific foundation of gas permeation in glassy polymers and the development of polymeric membranes for gas separations.

Learn more about this award.

The Lawrence B. Evans Award in Chemical Engineering Practice

Sponsored by CACHE Corporation, this award recognizes outstanding chemical engineering contributions in the industrial practice of the profession. This year's recipient was Dr. Jan J. Lerou, Principal at Jan J. Lerou Consulting, Hilliard, Ohio.

Dr. Lerou was honored for his innovations in chemical engineering practice with outstanding contributions to novel reactor types, and his tireless advocacy of new techniques in industrial catalysis and reaction engineering R&D.

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The Warren K. Lewis Award

Sponsored by ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company, this award recognizes contributions to chemical engineering education. This year's winner is Dr. Arvind Varma, the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor and Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of the School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University.

Dr. Varma was recognized for profound contributions to chemical engineering education through authorship and editorship of books, outstanding administrative leadership, creative research with students, teaching, and inspiration of students.

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The William H. Walker Award

Sponsored by John Wiley & Sons, this award recognizes excellence in contributions to chemical engineering literature. Dr. Harvey W. Blanch, Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is this year's winner.

Dr. Blanch won this year's award for his broad-ranging scientific, engineering and educational contributions in biochemical engineering, including transport and kinetics in bioreactors, microbial and mammalian cell growth process, bioseparations, and biothermodynamics.

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2013 Student Design Award

In addition to the institute award, the student design award, sponsored by Omega Chi Epsilon, was also recognized at the honors ceremony.

2013 Problem

"Comparison of Bio-mass to Bio-oils Reactor Systems: Direct Conversion vs. Companion Coal Gasification"

Chair

Dr. W. Roy Penney, University of Arkansas

Individual Category

First Prize -- A. McLaren White Award, Logan Ryan Matthews, Michigan State University

Team Category

(Tie) First Prize -- William Cunningham Award Andres Dougherty, David H. Hagan, and Sarah Paleg, Washington University in St. Louis; Greg Diefenthaler and Aury Keller, Trine University

Greg Diefenthaler and Aury Keller, AIChE Award