Symposium To Honor Ruckenstein, National Medal of Science Recipient

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A Chemical Engineering Symposium in honor of Eli Ruckenstein, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Chemical Engineering and 1998 winner of the prestigious National Medal of Science, will be held June 18-19 in the UB Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus.

Sponsored by UB, the Department of Chemical Engineering and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the symposium is being held in recognition of Ruckenstein's career, contributions and achievements on the occasion of his receiving the 1998 National Medal of Science.

Ruckenstein and the eight other recipients were presented with their awards last month during a White House ceremony hosted by President Clinton.

The symposium will feature the following speakers, who will present their research:

o John L. Anderson, professor and dean of Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie-Mellon University

o Howard Brenner, Willard H. Dow Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

o E. James Davis, professor of chemical engineering, University of Washington

o Pablo G. Debenedetti, Class of 1950 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University

o Morton M. Denn, professor and past chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

o Dennis C. Prieve, Gulf Professor of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University

o W. Harmon Ray, Vilas Research Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

o Stanley I. Sandler, Henry Belin duPont Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware

o Ashutosh Sharma, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

o Ralph T. Yang, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, and former chair of the UB Department of Chemical Engineering

As part of the symposium, a banquet will be held June 18 in the University Inn and Conference Center.

Considered the U.S. equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the National Medal of Science is the highest honor awarded in the U.S. for scientific achievement. It is bestowed on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to knowledge in the chemical, physical, biological, mathematical, engineering or social sciences.

Ruckenstein, a UB faculty member since 1973 and a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, is the first UB professor to receive the coveted award.

His research interests have covered nearly every aspect of chemical engineering and have included groundbreaking contributions in such areas as transport phenomena, catalysis, surface phenomena, nucleation, colloids, emulsions, biocompatible surfaces and materials, applied mathematics and polymers.

Information and registration for the symposium is available on-line at http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu/chemsym

The registration fee, which includes lunch the first day, is $10. The banquet is an additional $40.

Corporate co-sponsors are OxyChem, Inc.; IBM, and Praxair, Inc.