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by Gordon Ellis -
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Presented by AIChE’s Board of Directors, The Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering is given to engineers who have had a profound impact on the way chemical engineering is applied, and whose achievements have advanced the profession in any of its aspects.
The 2024 Founders Award recipient is Dr. Gintaras V. “Rex” Reklaitis, the Gedge Distinguished Professor at Purdue University. Reklaitis will receive the Founders Award at a ceremony held in connection with the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, October 27–31 in San Diego, California.
AIChE and Purdue have offered many opportunities for leadership. These opportunities have not only allowed me to grow professionally but also to work with many outstanding students and professionals.
Meet Rex Reklaitis
A chemical engineering alumnus of the Illinois Institute of Technology (BS) and Stanford (MS and PhD), Rex Reklaitis has amassed an expansive legacy through his research, writing, professional affiliations, and as a teacher and mentor.
Discussing his career in chemical engineering, Reklaitis said, “My focus on process systems engineering has allowed me to address relevant applications as the discipline has responded to the chemical process industries’ market and technical challenges. Accordingly, the applications I have pursued have shifted from coal conversion processes to specialty chemicals, from batch processing to pharmaceuticals, and most recently to energetic materials.” He noted that his methodologies, which are centered on mathematical modeling, numerical, statistical, and optimization methods, “have likewise evolved as computing and systems technology have exploded in power and access.”
More on Reklaitis’s research
In an example of his recent research, Reklaitis’s process management methods have helped drive the transition from traditional batch processing to fully continuous automated manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. He has also integrated small-scale systems that enable efficient manufacturing of drug doses, and methods for determining risk-minimizing dosing regimens for drugs with high inter-patient variability in efficacy and toxicity.
All told, Reklaitis’s multifaceted research has been the basis for ten books and more than 350 refereed publications.
Dr. Reklaitis (fourth from left) with colleagues and members of his research team.
Alongside his leadership in Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineering and his mentoring of 60 PhD students, Reklaitis’s contributions to education include textbooks and innovative online modules for undergraduates and professionals alike. His books include Introduction to Material and Energy Balances and Engineering Optimization: Methods and Applications, the latter of which seeks to instill a conceptual understanding of algorithms and optimality criteria with applications across engineering. The book was one of the earliest to provide a software library of optimization methods. Reklaitis also co-developed a suite of virtual experiment modules designed to bring experiences more representative of industrial practice directly to students’ desk computers.
AIChE involvement
A Fellow and former director of AIChE, Reklaitis has led AIChE’s Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) Division, the Publication Committee, and the National Programming Committee, and he participated on the Vision 2020 Task Force. He helped launch AIChE’s Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development, and Manufacturing Forum, and has held leadership roles in the Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering Education (CACHE) Corporation. Reklaitis is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For nearly 25 years, he edited Computers & Chemical Engineering, the premier archival journal in process systems engineering.
A professional home
In acknowledging the Founders Award, Reklaitis reflected on the value of having a professional home base for his endeavors. “Purdue has provided a supportive environment in which to practice the discipline, allowing the flexibility to shift research and teaching topics as the opportunities and needs arose.” He notes that AIChE, too, has “offered many opportunities for leadership — for which I am grateful, as these opportunities have not only allowed me to grow professionally but also to work with many outstanding students and professionals. It is these people relationships that have been the most valuable aspects of my career as an academic chemical engineer.”
ChEnected is presenting profiles of all the 2024 Institute and Board of Directors’ Award recipients. Visit ChEnected each week to meet the honorees.