AICHE Presents Annual Awards

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) presented 12 awards during its annual meeting in fall 2005 to leaders and innovators in the chemical engineering profession.

Alexis T. Bell, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, received the William H. Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions to Chemical Engineering Literature.

Basil C. Doumas, retired project manager at Dow Chemical and past-president of AIChE, won the F. J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award for Service to the Institute.

Thomas F. Edgar, Abell Chair of Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, was honored with the Warren K. Lewis Award for Contributions to Chemical Engineering Education. The award recognizes distinguished and continuing contributions to chemical engineering education.

Adam Heller, a professor at UT Austin, received the Award in Chemical Engineering Practice for his work in reducing the pain and suffering of diabetic people through bioelectrochemical engineering.

Dan Luss, Cullen Professor in the department of chemical engineering at the University of Houston, accepted the 2005 Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering.

Samir Mitragotri, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was awarded the Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Institute. The award recognizes both Mitragotri's leadership in the field of transdermal drug delivery and his training of the next generation of researchers in biotechnology.

Massimo Morbidelli, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, was presented with the R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering for his wide-ranging, creative, and rigorous research in chemical reaction engineering.

Richard Noble, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and copresident of Voices for Children, received the Award for Service to Society. The award recognizes Noble's efforts to raise funds, recruit, and train Voices for Children's nearly 100 volunteers and provide services to cases involving more than 200 children annually.

Theodore W. Randolph, Gillespie Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, received the 2005 Professional Progress Award for Outstanding Progress in Chemical Engineering. The award recognizes Randolph's contributions to the science of chemical engineering in drug delivery, protein stabilization, enzymatic catalysis, and particle formation.

Kamalesh K. Sirkar, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology, won the Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology. The award recognizes Sirkar's outstanding contributions to gas separations.

Darsh Wasan won the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research. Wasan is Motorola Chair, professor of chemical engineering, and dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology.

C. Grant Willson, a professor at UT Austin, received the Arthur Dehon Little Award for Chemical Engineering Innovation for his contributions to the global semiconductor industry.