Dr. Donald R. Paul, director of the Texas Materials Institute at The University of Texas at Austin, recently received two national awards recognizing his polymer and membrane research.
The American Chemical Society honored him with the 2005 Herman F. Mark Award. Paul, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, was recognized by the society’s Polymer Chemistry Division for outstanding research in polymer sciences. As the Mark award recipient, he gave a speech to division members at the society’s annual meeting in Washington D.C.
Paul also recently was recognized with the 2005 Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology from the North American Membrane Society. He was honored during the society’s national meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, for decades of significant contributions to the foundation and commercial development of membrane research by integrating academic research with industrial collaborations. The society, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, also will recognize Paul as one of its founders.
Holder of the Ernest Cockrell Sr. Chair in Engineering and a faculty member in the College of Engineering since 1967, Paul studies various aspects of polymer blends, of membranes that can be used for separations and drug delivery, of barrier materials used for packaging, and of nanocomposites. His work in nanocomposites includes developing methods for dispersing nanometer-thick layers of clays into polymers by melt processing, and understanding the resulting materials’ properties. These materials are currently replacing conventional plastics in some automobile parts since the nanocomposites are lighter and increase fuel economy.
Paul is a member of numerous professional societies, and has received more than a dozen previous awards. Among these is American Chemical Society’s 1999 E.V. Murphree Award, Council fo Chemical Research 1999 Malcolm E. Pruitt Award, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 1998 William H. Walker Award.
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