Professor Spontak and His Colleagues Earned an IChemE Global Award

A multi-organizational team led by Professor Richard Spontak and his colleagues has earned a “Highly commended” ranking (the British equivalent of honorable mention) for their entry, “Self-Disinfecting Polymer Prevents Spreading COVID-19,” in the 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Award competition. The other members of the team are CBE graduate students Jiaqi Yan and Bharadwaja Srimat Tirumala Peddinti (STP), Profs. Reza Ghiladi and Frank Scholle from the NC State Departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences, respectively, Prof. Anthony Griffiths from Boston University and Dr. Vijay Mhetar from the Kraton Corporation.

Entries in the competition were divided into 20 categories, with more than 100 finalist from around the world being selected. The pool of entrants included small and large companies, government agencies, research laboratories, and universities. A high percentage of entries were submitted by large multi-national corporations, both as solo contestants and as co-contestants partnered with other entities.

The team’s entry, which is based on a new class of self-sterilizing polymers they developed, was submitted in the Pharma category. The project is described in a previous article on this web site. Due to the covid pandemic the winners were announced in November during a series of webinars where finalists presented their projects and took questions from the online audience.

Founded in 1922, the IChemE is a multi-national institution with primary offices in the UK and Australia. According to their web site, “IChemE exists to advance chemical engineering’s contribution worldwide for the benefit of society. We support the development of chemical, biochemical and process engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of over 35,000 members.”

An announcement for the 2020 awards competition says, “The IChemE Global Awards celebrate chemical and process engineering excellence and are widely considered as the world’s most prestigious chemical engineering awards.”

Congratulations to Professor Spontak and your colleagues for this prestigious award and the important accomplishments that earned it!