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by Gordon Ellis -
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ChEnected is introducing readers to the recipients of AIChE’s 2022 Institute and Board of Directors’ Awards, AIChE’s highest honors. Recipients are nominated by the chemical engineering community and voted upon by the members of AIChE’s volunteer-led Awards Committee. The Board of Directors’ Award honorees are nominated by the community and selected by AIChE’s Executive Committee.
The Lawrence B. Evans Award in Chemical Engineering Practice recognizes outstanding chemical engineering contributions in the industrial practice of the profession through manufacturing, R&D, management, or business leadership practices. The award is endowed by the AIChE Foundation and sponsored by CACHE (Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering) Corporation.
The recipient of the 2022 Evans Award in Chemical Engineering Practice is Dr. Paul Witt, Technical Leader at Dow Chemical. Witt is being recognized for expanded leadership in process technology innovation at Dow and at AIChE’s Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute through effective people-leadership and valuable technical contributions in reaction engineering and process optimization.
Dr. Witt and the other Institute and Board of Directors’ Award honorees will receive their prizes at the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting, November 13–18 in Phoenix, Arizona.
As technical leader in the Engineering and Process Science department of Dow’s Core Research and Development organization, Paul Witt is responsible for the technical innovation, leadership, and strategy of his organization. He has also been an active member of the AIChE RAPID technical advisory board.
A career with broad experience
Over his 25-year career at Dow, Witt has served the company and the chemical industry in a variety of roles. Over a ten-year period, he led Dow’s reaction engineering, process separations, and process systems engineering groups. Under his leadership, his team has received numerous internal and external awards for converting innovations into practical applications. Prior to his leadership roles, Witt implemented and supported advanced control and optimization projects globally. His contributions also include supporting the startup of a grassroots ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant in Malaysia.
Witt began his chemical engineering studies at Iowa State University, where he received his BS, and he received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in the field of short contact time reactors with noble metal catalysts, working under the direction of Lanny D. Schmidt. In addition to AIChE’s Evans Award in Chemical Engineering Practice, in 2022 Witt received the Davidson Award for outstanding mentorship from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). He is the author of more than 100 Dow internal reports and 23 peer-reviewed journal articles.
This fall, ChEnected is presenting profiles of all the 2022 Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients. Visit ChEnected regularly to meet this year’s honorees.