Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology

The Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology, consisting of a $10,000 prize and lifetime membership in the North American Membrane Society (NAMS), is given to individuals who have made breakthrough contributions to the membrane field. Dr. Alan Michaels was one of the true innovators and pioneers in membrane science and technology. His academic and industrial work on ultrafiltration, membrane-based drug delivery systems, and new membrane processes for the biopharmaceutical industry all represented breakthroughs that helped redefine the membrane field. This award is given by the North American Membrane Society to honor the late Dr. Michaels and to recognize individuals who have made outstanding innovations and/or exceptional lifetime contributions to membrane science and technology.

Eligibility:

Anyone working in the field of membrane science and technology is eligible to be nominated (except for current members of the Board of Directors of NAMS).

Application Materials: (submitted as electronic PDF of MS Word files)

Nominations must be submitted by a member of the North American Membrane Society. (Note: Members of the NAMS Board of Directors cannot submit nominations during their term of office). The nomination package should include:

  1. a cover letter describing the individual’s contribution and its importance to the field of membrane science and technology,
  2. three letters of recommendation in support of the nomination, and
  3. supporting materials, e.g., list of awards, publications, books, patents, etc.

The deadline for submissions for Alan S. Michaels Award nominations is October 31, 2007. Applications must be submitted to Ingo Pinnau (ipin@mtrinc.com). The award will be presented at the 2008 ICOM meeting, July 12-18, 2008, Honolulu, Hawaii. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of referees with final decisions made by the NAMS Board of Directors. An award will only be given if there is a nominee whose contributions are judged to be significant to warrant this special recognition.

 

 

Past Recipients

2002
Dr. Richard W. Baker

Dr. Baker, Membrane Technology and Research Inc., received the inaugural Michaels Award for:

“...for his scientific inventiveness in a number of membrane fields, ranging from controlled release to gas separation, as well as, his demonstrated achievements in transitioning developments in membrane science and engineering into commercial reality.”

He 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, pervaporation, and controlled drug release. He was a colleague of Alan Michaels first at Amicon, and then later at Alza Corporation. He later was a co-founder of Bend Research, Inc., where he was Director of Research until 1981. He then founded MTR, Inc., in 1982, to commercialize vapor separation technology (VaporSep®) which was awarded a 1990 R&D 100 Award and 1997 Chemical Engineering Magazine Kirkpatrick Award. During this period, he was also President of Pharmetrix Corporation (a joint-venture devoted to controlled release applications) and a co-founder of NAMS. 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 92 peer-reviewed publications; and was inventor/co-inventor on 89 patents.

 
 
2005
Professor Donald R. Paul

Professor Paul, The University of Texas at Austin, received the Michaels Award for

"... forty-plus years of significant contributions to the fundamental foundation and commercial development of this field by synergistically integrating academic research with industrial collaborations."

He holds the Ernest Cockrell, Sr. Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. After earning a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, he worked at Chemstrand for two years doing fundamental research on pore formation during wet spinning of fibers. In 1967 he joined the faculty at University of Texas where he continued making ground-breaking advances in membrane technology. His 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. Professor Paul's 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 500 papers, 200 or so relating to membranes. Last year there were over 20,500 citations of these papers. Professor Paul has also been very active in numerous editorial boards and professional organizations, including the founding committee for the North American Membrane Society. He has truly left an indelible mark on the membrane industry.