The award, sponsored by the Exxon Research & Engineering Co. and Exxon Chemical Co., is given to "stimulate fundamental research in industrial and engineering chemistry, the development of chemical engineering principles and their application to industrial processes."

A UB professor since 1973, Ruckenstein was cited for the breadth of his research, which covers a wide spectrum rarely seen in the work of a single scientist, and for its pioneering character.

His contributions have ranged from applied mathematics and catalysis to polymers, enzyme catalysis, surface phenomena, colloids and emulsions.

He has performed pioneering work on the theory of transfer phenomena, the chemistry of supported metal catalysts, catalytic combustion, detergents and the thermodynamics of micro-emulsions and other complex fluids. He also has developed colloidal and emulsion pathways to prepare polymers and discovered catalysts for important chemical reactions.

In addition, he has developed new protein-separation methods and new technologies to prepare membranes for separation processes.

His investigations of colloids and emulsions led to the modern theory of microemulsions.

In 1992, a new technology he devised for preparing pastes with high-thermal conductivity to be used in computers was patented and has been licensed to a major U.S. corporation.

Ruckenstein was previously a professor at Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the University of Delaware and Clarkson University.

He has held visiting professorships at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium; Technion in Haifa, Israel; Bayreuth University in West Germany, and Carnegie-Mellon University.

He has been honored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers with its most prestigious awards: the Alpha Chi Sigma Award in 1977 for excellence in chemical engineering research and the Walker Award for excellence in contributions to chemical engineering literature in 1988.

Ruckenstein also received the 1986 Kendall Award of the American Chemical Society for creative theories and experiments in colloid and surface science.

In 1985, he received the Senior Humboldt Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in West Germany for his work related to detergents and the Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation for his work on protein separation.

Ruckenstein is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.