The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has named its John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer for 2017: Gintaras V. (Rex) Reklaitis, the Burton and Kathryn Gedge Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Reklaitis will present the Prausnitz Lecture on November 1 at AIChE’s Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In his lecture, “Process Systems Engineering Contributions to Pharmaceuticals,” Reklaitis will discuss the important role that process systems engineering plays in the drug component of health care — from traditional product-focused contributions, to manufacturing innovations, to emerging opportunities in personalized medicine.
Reklaitis, an AIChE Fellow and a trustee of the AIChE Foundation, serves as head of Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineering and is deputy director of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems. His work in process systems engineering applies information and computing technologies to process and product design, process operations, and supply chain management. His current research applies these tools to improve pharmaceutical product design, development, manufacture, and drug delivery, and includes studies of integrated energy networks and supply chains. He has documented his research in 270 papers and book chapters, and has edited or authored nine books.
Reklaitis is a former director of AIChE and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and has served as a director of the Council for Chemical Research (CCR) and CACHE Corp. He is past editor-in-chief of Computers & Chemical Engineering. Among previous honors, Reklaitis has received AIChE’s Van Antwerpen Award for Service to the Institute, the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award from AIChE’s Computing and Systems Technology Division, and the Malcolm E. Pruitt Award from CCR. In addition to the Prausnitz lectureship honor, Reklaitis will receive AIChE’s 2017 Warren K. Lewis Award for Contributions to Chemical Engineering Education at AIChE’s Annual Meeting.
Reklaitis earned a BS at Illinois Institute of Technology, and an MS and a PhD from Stanford University, all in chemical engineering.
The Prausnitz Institute Lecture is presented annually by a distinguished AIChE member who has made significant contributions to the chemical engineering sciences. In 2016, the lectureship was endowed by the AIChE Foundation and renamed in honor of John M. Prausnitz, professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who pioneered the field of engineering-oriented molecular thermodynamics.
About AIChE: AIChE is a professional society of more than 53,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.