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 Dr. Nicholas Peppas, Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Peppas holds appointments in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, pediatrics, surgery and perioperative care, and molecular pharmaceutics and drug delivery. He also directs the Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine.
Peppas is being recognized “for visionary leadership and transformative service to AIChE, founding biomaterials and bionanotechnology communities, strengthening governance, and advancing interdisciplinary chemical engineering worldwide.”
Peppas and the other Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients will be honored at the 2026 AIChE Annual Meeting, taking place November 8–12 in Minneapolis.
About Peppas and his service
Peppas’s service to AIChE spans more than five decades and includes leadership across the Institute’s governance, technical communities, publications, awards, education, and conference programming.
He served on AIChE’s Board of Directors from 2000 to 2002 and held roles on the Council of Technology, Research and New Technology Committee, Nominating Committee, Board Award Committee, and Bioengineering Task Force. He later chaired the AIChE Awards Committee from 2011 to 2013, following service as its vice chair and as a committee member.
A defining part of Peppas’s service has been his ability to recognize emerging areas of chemical engineering and build communities around them. In 1980, he created and launched AIChE’s Biomaterials Group, bringing greater attention to the growing connections among materials science, biology, medicine, and chemical engineering. In 2002, he founded the Bionanotechnology Area and served as its chair through 2005.
Peppas also held numerous leadership roles within the Materials Engineering and Sciences Division, including division chair, program chair, director, and chair of its awards and nominating committees. His service extended to the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division, the Nanotechnology Forum, the Committee on Polymers, and the New Materials Committee.
He helped translate these emerging fields into programming and resources for AIChE members. Peppas organized five topical conferences and 36 technical symposia for AIChE, covering biomaterials, drug delivery, medical engineering, therapeutic systems, and bionanotechnology. He also edited AIChE publications on biomaterials, drug delivery, and bionanotechnology and served as an associate editor of the AIChE Journal.
More about Peppas
Beyond AIChE, Peppas is internationally recognized for his research in hydrogels, biomaterials, controlled drug delivery, and regenerative medicine. His work has helped establish fundamental approaches for understanding diffusion and transport in polymer-based delivery systems. He has also mentored more than 800 undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, visiting scientists, and other trainees, many of whom have become leaders in academia, medicine, and industry.
Peppas is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with numerous international academies. His previous AIChE honors include the Materials Engineering and Sciences Award, Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award, William H. Walker Award, Jay Bailey Award, Institute Lecture, Founders Award, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Award, Warren K. Lewis Award, and Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Society Founder’s Award.
Across these roles, Peppas has helped AIChE respond to new scientific directions while strengthening the Institute’s leadership, recognition programs, publications, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Read about the other recipients of the 2026 AIChE Institute and Board of Directors’ Awards.
