2016 Rutherford Aris Award Recipient

The 2016 Rutherford Aris Award recognizes outstanding contributions in experimental and/or theoretical reaction engineering research of investigators in early stages of their career. The recipient must be less than 40 years of age at the end of the calendar year in which the award is presented. The Aris Award is generously supported by a grant from the UOP, L.L.C., a Honeywell Company. The award will be presented at ISCRE 24. It consists of a plaque, an honorarium of $3,000, and up to $2,000 in travel funds to present at ISCRE 24 and to present a lecture at UOP.

The ISCRE Board is pleased to announce that Professor Paul Dauenhauer of the University of Minnesota has emerged as the inaugural winner of the Aris award, from a pool of seven outstanding candidates.

Prof. Dauenhauer was nominated "for advancing molecular understanding of complex reacting systems including biomass pyrolysis and renewable biochemicals such as p-xylene via novel reactors and analysis of large mixtures". His creativity in research is highlighted by five patent applications, which serve as the scientific foundation of three startup companies.

Excerpts from the nomination include:

• A hallmark of Paul's work is that he combines excellent experimental skills with traditional reaction engineering analysis and entrepreneurial creativity.
• His mechanistic work on the cellulose pyrolysis is most elegant. Even more impressive is his recent discovery that one can react dimethylfuran with ethylene over a zeolite catalyst to produce high yields of para-xylene.
• Paul is the most creative and most accomplished young reaction engineer in academia in the country. His talks are clear and interesting and he is willing to share the rewards from his ideas. He is definitely of the same spirit as Gus Aris.
• Paul has the ability to integrate chemical kinetics, heat and mass transfer, insight into reaction mechanisms and deep understanding of analytical techniques in ways that make him stand out from his peers in the field.