Robert W. Vaughan Lectureship

The yearly special lectures honoring Robert W. Vaughan recognize outstanding research and are held during the winter or spring quarters.

Robert W. Vaughan was at the center of developments of high-resolution, solid-state NMR techniques at the time of his untimely death in 1979. At that time, Dr. Vaughan was very early into his career. His research has contributed much to our understanding of hydrogen-bonding in organic and inorganic solids, chemical bonding in metallic hydrides and metal carbonyl clusters, motion and structure in polymers, and motion and structure of surface hydroxyl groups on oxide catalysts.

The Vaughan Lectures in Chemical Engineering are made possible by the Robert W. Vaughan memorial fund established by the friends and associates of Robert Vaughan. The objective of the Vaughan Lectureship is to honor distinguished young scientists in any of the fields of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Physics or Applied Physics.

Our 2024 Vaughan Lecturer is Kevin Dorfman of University of Minnesota.

Previous recipients of the Vaughan Lectureship are:

2023 – Elizabeth Nance, University of Washington
2022 – Bryan D. McCloskey, University of California, Berkeley
2022 – Nga Lee (Sally) Ng, Georgia Institute of Technology
2019 – Chang C. Liu, University of Irvine, California
2018 – Clifford Brangwynne, Princeton University
2017 – Todd Squires, University of California, Santa Barbara
2016 – Michael Strano, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2015 – Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles
2014 – Athanasios Nenes, Georgia Institute of Technology
2013 – Michael Gordon, University of California, Santa Barbara
2012 – Rachel A. Segalman, University of California, Berkeley
2011 – Shekhar Garde, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy
2010 – Chris Jones, Georgia Tech, Atlanta
2009 – Chris Voigt, University of California, San Francisco
2008 – David V. Schaffer, University of California, Berkeley
2007 – Michael W. Deem, Rice University
2006 – Michael Tsapatsis, University of Minnesota
2005 – Roger T. Bonnecaze, University of Texas at Austin
2004 – Spyros N. Pandis, Carnegie Mellon University
2003 – Joan F. Brennecke, University of Norte Dame
2002 – Daniel A. Hammer, University of Pennsylvania
2001 – Nicholas L. Abbott, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2000 – Arup K. Chakraborty, University of California, Berkeley
1999 – George Georgiou, University of Texas at Austin
1998– Norman J. Wagner, University of Delaware
1997 – Chaitan S. Khosla, Stanford University
1996 – Thomas F. Keuch, University of Wisconsin at Madison
1995 – Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota
1994 – Doros N. Theodorou, University of California, Berkeley
1993 – Charles F. Zukoski, IV, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1992 – Pablo Debenedetti, Princeton University
1991 – Sangtae Kim, University of Wisconsin
1990 – Mark Davis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
1989 – T. Michael Duncan, AT&T Bell Labs.
1987 – Robert A. Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1986 – Ignacio Grossmann, Carnegie Mellon University
1985 – Matthew Tirrell, University of Minnesota
1984 – Robert E. Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1983 – Manfred Morari, University of Wisconsin
1982 – Alkivides C. Payatakes, University of Houston
1981 – Alexander Pines, University of California, Berkeley