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William N. Lacey Lectureship

William N. Lacey

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

This series of distinguished lectureships is named in honor of Dr. William Noble Lacey. He was a native of San Diego, did his undergraduate work at Stanford University, and then received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California at Berkeley. He came to Caltech as an Instructor in 1916 and advanced through the academic ranks to Professor in 1931. In addition to a distinguished career in teaching and research, he served the Institute in a number of significant administrative capacities, particularly as Dean of Graduate Studies from 1946 to 1956 and as Dean of the Faculty from 1961 to 1962. Dr. Lacey was honored with a Founders Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in December 1968. Dr. Lacey passed away on March 26, 1977.

The William N. Lacey Lectures in Chemical Engineering are made possible by the W. M. Lacey Fund, established at Caltech by a number of friends and former students of Professor Lacey. The objective of the lectureship program is to bring to the campus world-renowned experts currently active in chemical engineering or related disciplines.

The recipient presents two seminars; a general lecture and a technical lecture. The general lecture provides a broader perspective to a field involving Chemical Engineering, while the technical lecture is specific to the research program of the recipient. Both lectures are open to the public.

The 55th annual Lacey Lecturer is Chaitan Khosla of Stanford University. His technical lecture is on April 4, 2023 and his Lacey Lecture is on April 5, 2023.

Previous recipients of the Lacey Lectureship are:

2022 – Paula Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 – Juan de Pablo, University of Chicago, National Laboratories, Argonne National Laboratory
2019 – Molly S. Shoichet, University of Toronto
2018 – Joseph M. DeSimone, Carbon, Inc., University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University
2017 – Mikhail G. Shapiro, California Institute of Technology
2017 – Spyros N. Pandis, University of Patras
2017 – Glenn H. Fredrickson, University of California, Santa Barbara
2017 – Mark A. Barteau, University of Michigan
2016 – Howard Stone, Princeton University
2015 – Avelino Corma, Instituto de Tecnología Química
2014 – Gregory Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013 – Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
2012 – James A. Dumesic, University of Wisconsin, Madison
2011 – Arup K. Chakraborty, MIT
2010 – Bruce C. Gates, University of California, Davis
2009 – Carol K. Hall, North Carolina State University
2008 – L. Gary Leal, University of California, Santa Barbara
2007 – Viola Vogel, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
2006 – James C. Liao, University of California, Los Angeles
2005 – Ronald G. Larson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2004 – Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Santa Barbara
2003 – Klavs F. Jensen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2002 – Sangtae Kim, Lilly Research Laboratories
2001 – Michael L. Shuler, Cornell University
2000 – Douglas A. Lauffenburger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1999 – Robert A. Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1998 – John L. Anderson, Carnegie Mellon University
1997 – Eduardo D. Glandt, University of Pennsylvania
1996 – Gary L. Haller, Yale University
1995 – Robert S. Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1994 – Julio M. Ottino, Northwestern University
1993 – Timothy J. Anderson, University of Florida
1992 – William B. Russel, Princeton University
1991 – Csaba Horváth, Yale University
1990 – Richard C. Alkire, University of Illinois
1989 – Arthur W. Westerberg, Carnegie Mellon University
1988 – W. Harmon Ray, University of Wisconsin
1987 – Adel R. Sarofim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1986 – Thomas J. Hanratty, University of Illinois
1985 – Charles W. Tobias, University of California, Berkeley
1984 – Edwin N. Lightfoot, Jr., University of Wisconsin
1983 – Dan Luss, University of Houston
1982 – H. Ted Davis, University of Minnesota
1981 – Jerry McAfee, Gulf Oil Corporation
1980 – Neal R. Amundson, University of Houston
1979 – Morton M. Denn, University of Delaware
1978 – L. E. Scriven, University of Minnesota
1977 – Michel Boudart, Stanford University
1976 – Leon Lapidus, Princeton University
1975 – Monte Throdahl, Monsanto Company
1974 – R. Byron Bird, University of Wisconsin
1973 – John Sinfelt, Exxon Research and Engineering Company
1972 - Andreas Acrivos, Stanford University
1971 - Harry Drickamer, University of Illinois
1970 - Rutherford Aris, University of Minnesota
1969 - John Prausnitz, University of California, Berkeley
1968 - Arthur Metzner, University of Delaware