Education

Employment

Honors and Awards

1970       Engineering Foundation Faculty Award (Also 1972, 1974-77, 1981, 1987)
1972       Distinguished Advisor Award (U.T. Student Engineering Council) (Also 1975, 1976)
1973       Arthur K. Doolittle Award (American Chemical Society)
1974       Educational Service Award (Plastics Institute of America)
1976       Engineering News-Record Award
1977       Teaching Achievement Award (U.T. Student Engineering Council)
1977       General Dynamics Teaching Award (The University of Texas at Austin)
1981       Joe J. King Achievement Award (The University of Texas at Austin)
1982       Research Award (Society of Plastics Engineers)
1984       Phillips Award in Applied Polymer Science (Amer. Chem. Soc.)
1984       Best Fundamental Paper Award (South Texas AIChE)
1985       Materials Engineering and Sciences Award (AIChE)
1988       Elected to National Academy of Engineering
1989       Education Award (Society of Plastics Engineers)
1993       International Award (Society of Plastics Engineers)
1993       Hocott Engineering Research Award (The University of Texas at Austin)
1994       Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award (North Carolina State University)
1994       Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award (The University of Texas at Austin)
1995       Elected Fellow of AIChE
1998       William H. Walker Award (AIChE)
1998       Malcolm E. Pruitt Award (Council for Chemical Research)
1999       E.V. Murphree Award (Amer. Chem. Soc.)
1999       Halliburton Award of Excellence (The University of Texas at Austin)
2000       Distinguished Service Citation (University of Wisconsin)
2000       Elected as Corresponding Member of Mexican Academy of Sciences
2000       Elected Fellow of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division (Amer. Chem. Soc.)
2004       Elected Fellow of Society of Plastics Engineers
2005       NAMS Founders Award (North American Membrane Society)
2005       Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology (NAMS)
2005       Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award (Amer. Chem. Soc.)
2008       Founders Award (AIChE)
2009       Elected Fellow of Materials Research Society
2009       Elected Fellow of American Chemical Society
2009       General Motors R&D Most Valued Colleague Award
2010       Elected Fellow of Polymer Division (Amer. Chem. Soc.)

Named Lectures

1984       Warren L. McCabe Lecture, North Carolina State University
1991       Turney Alfrey Visiting Professor at Michigan Molecular Institute
1996       R.L. Pigford Memorial Lecture, University of Delaware
1997       Ashton Hall Cary Lectures, Georgia Institute of Technology

1. Donald L. Katz Lectures, University of Michigan

2003       L. K. Doraiswamy Lectures, Iowa State Univ. and National Chemical Lab., Puna, India
2004       Distinguished Guest Professor, Chinese Acad. of Sciences, Changchun Inst. of Applied Chemistry
2006       Weissberger-Williams Lecture Series, Kodak Research Laboratories
2008       Harry G. Fair Memorial Lecture, University of Oklahoma

Citations

Approximately 26,000 listed by Science Citation Index as of October 2007.
Listed as #135 in 1000 Most Cited Chemists 1981-1997
(see http://www.ill.fr/dif/citations/chemists.html).
Listed by ISI Web of Science as a Highly Cited Researcher in both Materials Science and
Chemistry (see http://isihighlycited.com/).
Certificate of recognition as both The Most Prolific and The Most Cited Author for the first 50 years (1960-2009) of the journal POLYMER.

RESEARCH AREAS

Interests include the broad areas of polymer science and engineering and chemical engineering.  Current research involves various aspects of polymeric materials including polymer blends; membranes for separations, drug delivery, packaging, etc.; and polymer processing.  The blend research deals with the thermodynamics of polymer-polymer interactions (miscibility, phase diagrams, interfaces), reactive compatibilization of multiphase mixtures, rubber toughening, the control of phase morphology during processing by both chemical and physical means, and polymeric nanocomposites.  The research on diffusion in polymers involves investigation of structure-property relationships to design better membranes for separation processes and improved barrier materials plus an interest in theories and models for describing sorption and permeation of small molecule penetrants in polymers including the rubbery, glassy, semi-crystalline, and liquid crystalline states of these materials.  The research on nanocomposites involves devising chemical and processing strategies for exfoliating layered silicates in polymer matrices for improvement of performance using nanoscale reinforcement.  Synthesis, characterization, and performance of polymers are an integral part of the research in all these areas.

Professional Activities (* denotes elected position)

American Institute of Chemical Engineers

        Education Projects Committee, 1968-77
Vice Chairman, Chemical Engineering Faculties, 1968-72
Editor, Chemical Engineering Faculties, 1972-77
Member, ad hoc Visitors List for Evaluation and Accreditation
of Chemical Engineering Programs, 1974-83
Member, Novel Separation Processes Committee, 1977-80
*Member, Executive Committee of South Texas Local Section, 1980
Member, National Program Committee
Member, Polymer Engineering and Science Program Committee of the
Materials Engineering and Science Div., 1981-85
*Director, Materials Engineering and Sciences Division, 2002-05

American Chemical Society

*Director, Southeastern Texas Polymer Group, 1973, 1980
*Chairman, Southeastern Texas Polymer Group, 1977
Member, Subcommittee on Polymers in ChE Curriculum, 1980-85
Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering
Advisory Committee, 1978-79
*Executive Committee, 1980-85
Awards Committee, 1980-85
Awards Committee
Member, Search Committees for Editors of
Materials Chemistry, 1987
J. Chem. Engr. Data, 1990
CHEMTECH, 1991
Energy and Fuels, 2001
Member, Task Force on Proposed Journals in
Applied Polymer Science, 1989
Process Chemistry Research, 1993
Chairman, Editors’ Conference, 1995-96

Society of Plastics Engineers

Chairman, Research and Professional Services Committee, 1980-82
Member, Research Award Committee, 1980-81, 1983-84
Member, Search Committee for Executive Director, 1994-95

International Congress on Polymers in Concrete

        Member, Founding Committee

Council for Chemical Research

*Member, Governing Board, 1981-84
Member, Executive Committee, 1983-84
Chairman, Nominating Committee, 1985
Member, Organizing Committee for NIChE Conference, 1995
Member, Organizing Committee for NIChE Conference, 2004

North American Membrane Society

ember, Founding Committee
*Member, Board of Directors, 1986-89

University Materials Council

*Member, Executive Committee, 2000-

National Academy of Engineering

Member, Materials Engineering Peer Committee, 1989-92, 1994
Vice Chairman, Materials Engineering Peer Committee, 1991
Member, Committee on Membership, 1994-97

The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas

Member, Founding Governing Board, 2004-
Chair, Membership/Nomination Committee, 2004-
Vice President, 2005
President, 2006
Past-President, 2007

National Research Council

National Materials Advisory Board, 1988-94
Committee on Polymer Science and Engineering, 1992-94
U.S. National Committee of the Intl. Union of Pure and Appl. Chem., 1993-96
Solid State Sciences Committee, 1994-97
Panel for Materials Science and Engineering of the Board of Assessment of NIST Program, 1995-2000
Panel for International Benchmarking of U.S. Materials Science and Engineering Research, 1997-98

Other

U. S. Army Chemical Systems Laboratory: CW-CBD Program Analysis Group, 1981
Advisory Council, School of Engineering, North Carolina State University, 1986-88
Visiting Committee, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University,
1986-89
Chairman, Engineering and Science Advisory Board of EPA Research Center for Waste
Minimization and Management, 1989–91
Academic Advisory Council, Industrial Research Institute, 1991-95
Member, Advisory Board of NSF Science and Technology Center for Advanced Materials for Water
Purification, University of Illinois, 2002-
College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering Advancement Council, University of Akron, 2007-
Chemical Engineering Advisory Board, Virginia Tech, 2009-

Ad Hoc Review Committees

Department of Chemical Engineering, Rutgers University, 1995
Center for Materials Research, Ohio State University, 1999
Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Chair), 2000
Advisor to the Research Assessment Exercise for Chemical Engineering in the United Kingdom, 2001
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2002
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2003
College of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 2004
Departments of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, 2007
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio State University, 2007
College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering Advancement Council, University of Akron, 2007-
Chemical Engineering Advisory Board, Virginia Tech, 2009-

Editor

Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (published by American Chemical Society), October 1986-
Section Editor for Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The Encyclopedia of Physical
Science and Technology – Third Edition, Academic Press

Editorial Boards

Journal of Membrane Science, 1975-
Polymer Engineering & Science, 1975-
Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 1979-
Chemical Engineering Education, 1986-91
Polymer, 1987-
Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Physics, 1989-
Polymer Contents, 1992-
Imperial College Press Series on Chemical Engineering, 1996-
Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, 2005-
Macromolecules, 2007-09