In this series, ChEnected introduces readers to the recipients of AIChE’s 2025 Institute and Board of Directors’ Awards. These high honorees are nominated by the chemical engineering community and voted upon by the members of AIChE’s Awards Committee.
AIChE’s Industrial Research and Development Award recognizes individuals or teams working in industries served by chemical engineers, for innovation that has resulted in the commercial development of new products and/or new processes for making useful products. The award is sponsored by AbbVie. 
In 2025, the Industrial R&D Award is being presented to Michael P. Thien “for world-class leadership in pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing, including impactful groundbreaking medications such as the breakthrough HIV protease inhibitor, ebola vaccine, and Keytruda.
Dr. Thien and the other Institute and Board of Directors’ Award honorees will receive their prizes at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston, November 2–6.
About Michael Thien
Throughout his career, Dr. Thien has achieved extraordinary accomplishments leading complex pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing, resulting in the market introduction of critical medications and significant improvement of global health. He spent 16 years in R&D and 17 years in manufacturing at Merck, before retiring as a senior vice president in March 2022. He then went on to become Head, Pharmaceutical Sciences in R&D, at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in September 2022, retiring from the position in 2025.
Dr. Thien played a crucial role in the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of indinavir sulfate, one of the first HIV protease inhibitors. Indinavir sulfate was developed at an unprecedented pace amid immense societal pressure, with weekly updates and meetings involving government officials and passionate AIDS activists.
Under Dr. Thien's leadership, Merck successfully developed and scaled up the manufacturing process for indinavir sulfate, enabling the rapid deployment of this life-saving therapy. The challenges of synthesizing indinavir, a molecule of exceptional complexity, required innovative solutions and precise engineering. The FDA approval of indinavir sulfate in 1996, the fastest FDA approval in history, marked a turning point in HIV treatment. The overall success in HIV treatment relies on a combined effort of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and indinavir sulfate played a significant role in fundamentally changing the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic globally.
Above: Dr. Thien and colleagues on site at a pilot plant.
Dr. Thien also oversaw the urgent process development and manufacturing of Ervebo, Merck's Ebola vaccine. Ervebo is the only vaccine for Ebola and played a critical role in combating outbreaks in Africa, most notably during the 2018–2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it demonstrated an effectiveness of 84%. Dr. Thien navigated unique challenges due to the vaccine being live attenuated. It was illegal, for example, to transport live Ebola via traditional methods to Africa, but after extensive negotiations by Dr. Thien, the U.S. Air Force transported the vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for administration.
Also among Thien's accoplishments is Keytruda, a revolutionary cancer immunotherapy approved in 2014, which has become a cornerstone of oncology treatment. With 30 FDA-approved indications, it is projected to reach an astounding $31 billion in global sales in 2025, and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide benefit from Keytruda. Dr. Thien played a pivotal role as SVP of Global Biologics and Sterile Operations in stabilizing and scaling the supply chain for this complex biologic, ensuring consistent global availability.
In addition to Dr. Thien's exceptional success in pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing, he has dedicated extensive time to serving the profession. He has served on the Board of Directors for both the National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training and the University of Delaware Board on Bio-Innovation. He has also served on numerous university boards, and has been an active member of AIChE, where he served as AIChE Gala Chair from 2019 to 2021 and currently is a member of the AIChE Corporate Council.
This fall, ChEnected is presenting a series that profiles all the 2025 Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients. Visit ChEnected regularly to meet the honorees.
