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.
The F. J. and Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award is presented to a member of AIChE who has made outstanding contributions to the chemical engineering profession through service to AIChE, in both the professional and technical areas of Institute activities. The prize is named for Franklyn Van Antwerpen, who served as AIChE’s Secretary and Executive Director from 1955–1978. The award is sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company.
This year, the Van Antwerpen Award is being presented to Sangtae “Sang” Kim, the Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering and Distinguished Professor at Purdue University.
Dr. Kim is being recognized “for contributions to the chemical engineering profession in streamlining the programming of the national AIChE meetings and new insights on viscous particulate flows.” He and the other Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients will be honored at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting.
About Sangtae Kim and his work
Dr. Kim has made far-reaching contributions to both the technical and organizational foundations of AIChE. As Meeting Program Chair for the 1996 Annual Meeting, he introduced the first web-enabled system for submitting and generating conference abstracts and programs, a transformative step that modernized how AIChE conferences are planned and managed. Later, as Chair of the Executive Board of the National Programming Committee, he helped revitalize the Annual Meeting, turning it into a vital and financially sustainable event. He also played a central role in launching systems biology programming as a new frontier for the Institute, ensuring that AIChE remained at the forefront of emerging research areas.
Beyond his programming leadership, Kim has been deeply involved in shaping AIChE’s long-term success. He is a founding Trustee of the AIChE Foundation and a founding member of the Foundation’s Legacy Society. At Purdue University, he worked with the AIChE student chapter to develop a model that has converted more than 90% of graduating seniors into professional members each year — a program now being replicated at other universities to strengthen the pipeline of young professionals entering the Institute.
Kim’s career has bridged academia, industry, and government with equal distinction. After rising from assistant professor to Wisconsin Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in just eight years, he went on to hold senior leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry, including Vice President of R&D Information Technology at Warner-Lambert’s Parke-Davis Research Division and at Eli Lilly and Company. He later served as the inaugural Division Director for the National Science Foundation’s national cyberinfrastructure programs before joining Purdue University as Distinguished Professor and Head of Chemical Engineering.
An AIChE Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, Kim is widely known for his groundbreaking research in viscous particulate fluid mechanics. His 1991 book, Microhydrodynamics: Principles and Selected Applications, continues to serve as a foundational reference in the field and was reissued by Dover Publications in recognition of its enduring value.
To learn about other 2025 Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients, read more in this series that features all award winners.
