Chemical Engineering Professor Wins Top International Award in Applied Chemical Thermodynamics

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- David Kofke, Ph.D., professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University at Buffalo, has been awarded the prestigious 2004 John M. Prausnitz Award for "significant and lasting contributions to the field of applied chemical thermodynamics."

Sponsored by the International Conference on Properties and Phase Equilibria for Product and Process Design, the award recognizes Kofke's broad efforts to advance applied thermodynamics through the development and application of molecular simulation methods.

Applied chemical thermodynamics is a field devoted to predicting the temperature-related behavior of materials, whether solid, liquid or gas, while considering effects of chemical composition, pressure and other factors.

This knowledge is an important ingredient in the design and manufacture of products ranging from commodity chemicals to pharmaceuticals to the next generation of electronic devices.

Only the third person to win this triennial award, Kofke was selected for excellence in research on phase-equilibria, an important subfield in applied chemical thermodynamics.

"Phase equilibrium underlies all the interesting and useful phenomena in nature," explained Kofke, "because the properties of a physical system depend first of all on the thermodynamic phase it is in."

And if a system isn't in its stable phase, he continued, it is trying to move toward it. This tendency, he said, drives everything we see happening around us.

Since the stable phase is the one with the lowest "free energy," phase equilibrium research is concerned with calculating the free energy of a material.

Such calculations are critical to numerous disciplines, ranging from the research and development of a new drug molecule or a new electronic material to the study of biological cells and the stable phases of their components, such as proteins.

"But free-energy calculations are tricky," Kofke said. "The methods are time-consuming and prone to inaccuracy, meaning it is not uncommon to do everything right and still get a wrong result."

He explained that while some molecular modeling software packages include the capability of calculating free energy, in any given situation, it is hard to be sure that the results they give are meaningful.

Kofke's goal is to develop knowledge and methods that enable others to conduct free-energy calculations efficiently and reliably.

This ability, he said, is critical to the rational design of better, more sophisticated materials and processes, as well as improving our understanding of nature, including the basic mechanisms of life and disease.

Kofke, a UB faculty member since 1989, is a recipient of both the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

He earned his bachelor's degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kofke lives in East Amherst, N.Y.