The 2017 Institute and Board of Directors' Awards were presented at the Honors Ceremony at the Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. These are AIChE's most prestigious awards, honoring eminent chemical engineers for career accomplishments, service to society, and service to the Institute. Current AIChE president T. Bond Calloway, Jr., presented the Board of Directors' Awards. He recognized that, throughout this week, AIChE will also celebrate other distinguished contributors through our division, forum, and committee awards. See all awards presented at the Annual Meeting.
Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering
The Founders Award is presented to engineers who have had a profound impact on the way that chemical engineering is practiced, and whose achievements have advanced the profession in any of its aspects. This year's Founders Award recipient is Dr. William F. Banholzer, a research professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"Dr. Banholzer is a visionary executive who has transformed numerous inventions into innovations, created research endowments in chemical engineering, enhanced safety practices, and implemented an outstanding outreach initiative for minorities."
Learn more about this award. Learn more about Dr. William Banholzer.
F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award for Service to the Institute
This award, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, is presented to Dr. Subhas K. Sikdar, an AIChE Fellow and retired Associate Director of Science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“For exemplary leadership in fostering the initiation and growth of sustainable engineering in the Institute’s programs.”
Learn more about this award. Learn more about Dr. Subhas Sikdar.
Before moving on to the Institute Awards, Calloway recognized this year's Institute lecturer. For 69 years, the Executive Board of the Program Committee has invited an AIChE member to present a comprehensive overview of chemical engineering in his or her area of specialization. This high honor was recently endowed, through generous donations to the AIChE Foundation, in the name of our colleague John Prausnitz of the University of California, Berkeley. This year’s John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecture will be presented by Dr. Gintaras V. (Rex) Reklaitis, The Burton and Kathryn Gedge Distinguished Professor at Purdue University. Dr. Reklaitis will deliver his lecture “Process Systems Engineering Contributions to Pharmaceuticals,” on Wednesday at 11:15 AM, in Ballroom B of the Minneapolis Convention Center. Rex will be honored formally at the end of his lecture.
Calloway then introduced and thanked the Chair of AIChE's Awards Selection Subcommittee, Rachel Segalman of The University of California, Santa Barbara, to present this year's Institute Awards.
After thanking the Awards Committee and Awards Solicitation Committee, Rachel presented the Institute Awards.
Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Pioneer Award
This year, AIChE inaugurates The Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Woman Chemical Engineer. This award is given to a woman member of AIChE who has made significant contributions to chemical engineering research or practice over the course of her career — and who has paved the way for women to have a greater impact on the profession.
The award honors the memory of Dr. Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau — the first woman to earn a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT, the first woman member of AIChE, and the first woman to receive AIChE’s Founders Award. Rousseau is known for her work at Pfizer, where she scaled up and designed the first deep-tank penicillin fermentation commercial plant, leading to mass production of the drug that has saved countless lives since World War II.
This new award, appropriately, is sponsored by Pfizer. And among the Pfizer representatives at this meeting is Christine Seymour, AIChE’s president elect, who was instrumental in establishing this new honor. The inaugural recipient of the Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Pioneer Award is Dr. Frances Hamilton Arnold, The Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, Dr. Arnold had a prior commitment in California, and was not able to attend the ceremony; however, she recorded the following video that was played at the ceremony.
