The Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is delighted to announce that Robert W. McCabe, Ford Motor Co., has been selected as the recipient of the AIChE CRE Division Practice Award for 2011. This award recognizes individuals who have made pioneering contributions to the industrial practice of catalysis and chemical reaction engineering. Awardees are selected based on their contributions to the discovery and application of innovative catalysis or reaction engineering solutions to technological problems, and/or commercialization of new products and processes.

The award will presented at the Division Dinner during the AIChE annual meeting in Minneapolis (Sunday evening, October 16th).  A special invited session will be held in honor of the recipient at the annual meeting on Tuesday morning, October 18th during which he will present a talk entitled “Progress and Challenges in Automotive Exhaust Catalysis ”.

Bob McCabe's 33 years career in automotive catalysis research is distinguished by outstanding technical innovations in the engineering and science of automotive emission control. Bob has made seminal contributions in the areas of precious metal utilization and deactivation mechanisms, catalysts for alternative-fuel vehicles (alcohol and natural gas), and catalysts and after-treatment systems for lean-burn vehicles (gasoline and diesel).

In pioneering work, he co-authored (with Louis Hegedus) the first book on poisoning of automotive catalysts.  This work formed the basis for new, poison- resistant catalysts now commercially available from the major catalyst manufacturers. Bob has also contributed to the fundamental aspects of catalysis through his extensive work on catalyst characterization, catalytic reaction kinetics and reaction pathways. He has nearly 100 archival papers published to date.  At Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, he is a Technical Leader and Team Leader in the Chemical Engineering Department, supervising a team of scientists and engineers in the research and development of catalytic converter technology. Since 2002, Bob and his team have moved forward the application of catalysts for NOx emission control under lean combustion conditions – both gasoline and diesel. Throughout his career he has collaborated with university and national laboratory partners, the catalyst suppliers, and forward model groups to facilitate the development and implementation of efficient, durable, and cost-effective automotive catalyst technology.