NAMS Fellows

NAMS Fellows2020-07-07T20:35:25+00:00

Election as Fellow shall be in recognition of both “service to NAMS” and “highly significant professional accomplishment in the membrane field”. A nominee for election of NAMS Fellow should have demonstrated long term excellence in membrane engineering and practice and been a member of NAMS for at least 10 years. Nominator must be a NAMS Member. Current Board members cannot nominate fellows or be named fellows. A maximum of two Fellow recognitions per year is expected.
Nomination deadline is October 15.
Nomination package containing the nomination form, CV, and supporting letters should be sent as one pdf file to the Fellow Selection Committee Chair, Richard Noble (richard.noble@Colorado.edu). All nominees will be informed of the Board’s decisions by January 31.

Dr. Edgar (Ed) S. Sanders, Jr.

2020 Fellow

Dr. Jerry Y.S. Lin

2020 Fellow

Ingo Pinnau

2020 Fellow

Dibakar (DB) Bhattacharyya

2019 Fellow

Anthony (Tony) Allegrezza

2019 Fellow

Dr. Richard Noble

2018 Fellow

Dr. Don Stookey

2018 Fellow

Dr. Benny Freeman

2017 Fellow

Dr. Kamalesh K. Sirkar

2017 Fellow

Dr. Richard W. Baker

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Dr. Georges Belfort

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Professor William J. Koros

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Dr. Norman N. Li

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Professor Donald R. Paul

2016 Inaugural Fellow

2020 Fellow

Dr. Edgar (Ed) S. Sanders, Jr.

Dr. Edgar (Ed) S. Sanders, Jr. is Chief Technology Officer and an International Fellow for Air Liquide. He has made critical contributions to understanding small molecule transport in polymeric materials and commercialization of membrane gas separation technology over the past four decades. From his pioneering work on mixed gas sorption and permeation in glassy polymers to commercialization of state-of-the-art oxygen and carbon dioxide selective membranes, modules, and processes, Dr. Sanders has provided technical leadership to the membrane community. These efforts are documented in approximately 40 patents and a nearly equal number of technical publications. Dr. Sanders’ specific expertise in membrane separations and broad expertise in chemical engineering product/process conception, development, and design led to his stewardship of Air Liquide’s advanced separation technology portfolio and signoff responsibility for separation process design. He has received multiple awards from The Dow Chemical Company and Air Liquide. He also is highly sought plenary speaker for membrane meetings. Dr. Sanders served NAMS as a Board of Directors Member for nine years, chair of the Workshop committee for six years, Vice-President, President, and co-chair of the 2011 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. He holds BS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University.

2020 Fellow

Dr. Jerry Y.S. Lin

Dr. Jerry Y.S. Lin, Regents’ Professor of Chemical Engineering at Arizona State University, is an internationally recognized leader in inorganic membrane science. He has made numerous original contributions developing new materials and synthesis methods and understanding fundamental separation and transport properties of mesoporous, microporous and dense inorganic membranes for filtration and molecular separation. Dr. Lin has three decades of fundamental and applied research which has contributed to advancing inorganic membrane science from its infancy to a major subdivision of membrane science. His technical contributions to membrane science are documented in his 350 papers and 9 issued patents.  He has been an editor of Journal of Membrane Science since 2008 and recently become Editor-in-Chief of the journal.  Dr. Lin also co-chaired two highly successful NAMS Annual Meetings (1998 and 2013).

2020 Fellow

Ingo Pinnau

Ingo Pinnau is founding Director of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center and Professor in Chemical Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His career in membrane science and technology spans over 35 years with internationally recognized contributions in the design of high-performance materials and membranes for energy-intensive separations. His research has resulted in several commercial membrane products for large-scale use in gas- and vapor separations. He has authored or co-authored 170 research papers and is named as inventor on 45 granted U.S. patents. He joined NAMS in 1987, served twice as NAMS President and was co-organizer of Annual NAMS meetings in 2004 and 2018 and ICOM in 2008.

2019 Fellow

Anthony (Tony) Allegrezza

Tony Allegrezza started a 40-year career in membrane R&D in 1973 at Albany Research working on composite hollow fiber RO membranes. This was probably the first adaptation of composite membrane technology to the hollow fiber format. The manufacturing process developed from this effort served as the basis for hollow fiber gas separation membrane and a sulfonated polysulfone RO products which were sold to other firms. In 1978 he moved to Koch Membrane Systems and worked on composite RO flat sheet membranes for the dairy industry. In 1983 he started his 25 year association with Millipore. There he developed a novel UF membrane – thin layer composite UF – for virus removal in biotherapeutic drug manufacturing. For this work he received the Jack Bush Award from Millipore, their highest R&D award. Tony was a member of the Board of Directors of NAMS and Treasurer for nine years. He was Co-Chair of the 2005 and 2010 Annual Meetings.

2019 Fellow

Dibakar (DB) Bhattacharyya

DB has forged a successful career over 45 years as a chemical engineering professor and researcher fueled by his serious interest in creating clean water through advanced membranes and other technologies. His 220+ refereed publications (over 180 journal articles, 36 book chapters, and two books), and nine U.S. patents in the area of functionalized membranes and water detoxification have made him a renowned authority in the area of membrane and hybrid technology based, water, water reuse, and pollutant separation activities. Starting from his involvement in the original founding days of NAMS (he has never missed a NAMS Annual meeting), he has coordinated and co-chaired three highly successful NAMS Annual Meetings (1992, 2001, 2018).

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Professor Donald R. Paul

Professor Paul’s contributions to wet spinning and transport mechanisms led to the development of hollow fiber asymmetric membranes for reverse osmosis, pervaporation, and gas separations. He is responsible for discoveries leading to the Prism® concept, which led to the first commercial gas separation membranes. His continued collaboration with industry has helped to translate the discoveries made in his lab into commercial products for liquid and gas separations. He has published over 700 papers, many relating to membranes.

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Dr. Norman N. Li

Dr. Li founded NL Chemical Technology, Inc. in 1995 to develop advanced reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes for water purification and desalination. He is the author of 45 U.S. patents, 20 edited books, and 100+ technical papers. The ICOM 1990 meeting he organized was so successful it generated funding that currently supports NAMS' numerous award programs. All of the students who receive travel support to NAMS meetings are beneficiaries of Dr. Li's efforts.

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Professor William J. Koros

Professor Koros helped develop the fundamental theoretical framework forming the basis of our modern understanding of small molecule transport in polymers. He made highly regarded fundamental contributions to materials science design concepts that are widely used in industry today for making gas separation membranes. His intellectual leadership extends beyond polymer membranes to include pioneering studies of hybrid organic/inorganic materials (mixed matrix membranes) for gas separations.

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Dr. Georges Belfort

Professor Belfort is known as a pioneer and leader in the understanding and application of membranes. He has the unusual ability to analyze the theoretical basis of key phenomena and to tackle complex experimental problems. He has made incredible contributions in membrane processes such as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, micro-filtration, membrane reactors, and membrane chromatography to fundamentals including membrane transport, concentration polarization, fluid dynamics, fouling, surface modification, and protein-surface interactions.

2016 Inaugural Fellow

Dr. Richard W. Baker

Dr. Baker is the founder and President of Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR). His career in membrane science and technology has spanned 35 years, with contributions in gas separation, pervapora-tion, and controlled drug release. He has written two highly regarded monographs, Controlled Release of Biologically Active Agents (1987) and Membrane Technology and Applications (2000); edited two other books; co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications; and was inventor/co-inventor on 100 patents.

2018 Fellow

Dr. Kamalesh K. Sirkar

Professor Kamalesh K. Sirkar, Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, has been an innovative leader in membrane technologies such as membrane contactors, membrane distillation, membrane reactors, hollow fiber membrane crystallization, and pioneering approaches to gas separation, organic solvent nanofiltration and bioseparations. He has published close to 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and has been cited over 10,000 times.

2018 Fellow

Dr. Benny Freeman

Professor Benny Freeman, Richard B. Curran Centennial Chair in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, is a world leader in the field of polymer-based membrane materials and separations. He has made seminal contributions to the advancement of high performance polymers and polymer-based materials for gas and liquid separations and other industrial applications. He has authored or co-authored nearly 400 papers and has 11 issued patents and 12 patent applications.

2018 Fellow

Dr. Don Stookey

Dr. Donald Stookey is a membrane pioneer and made key contributions to most of the gas separation membrane applications in current practice. He led the Monsanto team that designed and now produces the Prism® hollow fiber membranes. Air Products acquired and added the Prism Membrane business to their equipment offerings in 1991, while Don’s team refocused on applications outside the industrial gas market and have now taken membrane devices onboard ships, offshore platforms, aircraft, automotive, and into the OEM markets. Ever the champion for membranes, Don contributes a column on membrane news in the NAMS Membrane Quarterly, mentors membrane students, and continues to consult with membrane related entities globally.

2018 Fellow

Dr. Richard Noble

Dr. Richard D. Noble is the Alfred T. and Betty Ea. Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is an internationally recognized leader in the use of novel membrane and thin-film materials, including zeolites, ionic liquids and liquid crystals, for chemical separations. He currently has 82 patents/patent applications, more than 340 research publications, (15,000 citations, h index = 71) and 14 textbooks and monographs.