The University of Texas at Austin Professors Nicholas A. Peppas and Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo will receive national awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at their annual meeting in November.
Research professor Lisa Brannon-Peppas will deliver a plenary lecture for the institute’s Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division meeting.
Nicholas Peppas, the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering and chemical engineering, will receive the 2006 William H Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions to Chemical Engineering Literature.
The award is given annually for significant contributions to chemical engineering. It is the highest award the institute gives to a chemical engineer.
The inscription on his award will read: "For seminal scientific and educational contributions to bionanotechnology, biomolecular sciences and engineering, and nanoscale analysis of polymers and biomaterials over the past 30 years, and for providing profound insight into numerous engineering processes and applications that led to analysis, design and development of new biomaterials, drug delivery systems and medical devices."
Peppas is a world authority in pharmaceutical sciences and controlled drug delivery. He is recognized as the father of modern drug delivery and pioneered work on sustained and controlled release systems, or delivery of drugs and proteins in the body.
He earned his Sc.D. (doctorate of science) in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973. Peppas joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and directs the Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Bionanotechnology and Molecular Recognition. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the nation's highest honor for engineering professionals.
Loo, the General Dynamics Endowed Faculty Fellow in Engineering and an assistant professor of chemical engineering, will receive the 2006 Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications.
The award is given annually to recognize outstanding published papers by a member of the organization younger than 36 years old.
Loo’s research focuses on the emerging field of “plastic electronics,” which uses organic and plastic materials to create low-cost electronic devices with such novel applications as electronic monitors that could be rolled up or implantable medical devices that release a drug when body temperature changes. She is currently developing a plastic conductor as well as materials for the next generation of microelectronics.
Loo joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 2001. She received an Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation in 2004 and a Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 2005.
Lisa Brannon-Peppas will delivery a plenary lecture for the institute’s Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division meeting.
She will discuss how recent advances in nanoparticle and targeted delivery systems have made it possible to enhance detection and treatment of various types of cancer, referencing her work and that of other leading groups in the field.
Photos of Peppas are available at: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/NAEInductee2006.cfm
Photos of Loo are available at: www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/LooBeckman2005.cfm
Photos of Brannon-Peppas are available at: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/lpeppas.cfm
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