W. N. Lacey Lectureship in Chemical Engineering
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.
Our 2026 Lacey Lecturer is Zhenan Bao of Stanford University.
Previous recipients of the Lacey Lectureship are:
| Rachel Segalman | University of California, Santa Barbara | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Donna G. Blackmond | Scripps Research | 2024 |
| Chaitan Khosla | Stanford University | 2023 |
| Paula Hammond | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2022 |
| Juan de Pablo | University of Chicago, National Laboratories, Argonne National Laboratory | 2020 |
| Molly S. Shoichet | University of Toronto | 2019 |
| Joseph M. DeSimone | Carbon, Inc., University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University | 2018 |
| 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 | 2017 |
| Howard Stone | Princeton University | 2016 |
| Avelino Corma | Instituto de Tecnología Química | 2015 |
| Gregory Stephanopoulos | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2014 |
| Frank S. Bates | University of Minnesota, Minneapolis | 2013 |
| James A. Dumesic | University of Wisconsin, Madison | 2012 |
| Arup K. Chakraborty | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2011 |
| Bruce C. Gates | University of California, Davis | 2010 |
| Carol K. Hall | North Carolina State University | 2009 |
| L. Gary Leal | University of California, Santa Barbara | 2008 |
| Viola Vogel | The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) | 2007 |
| James C. Liao | University of California, Los Angeles | 2006 |
| Ronald G. Larson | University of Michigan Ann Arbor | 2005 |
| Matthew Tirrell | University of California Santa Barbara | 2004 |
| Klavs F. Jensen | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2003 |
| Sangtae Kim | Lilly Research Laboratories | 2002 |
| Michael L. Shuler | Cornell University | 2001 |
| Douglas A. Lauffenburger | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2000 |
| Robert A. Brown | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1999 |
| John L. Anderson | Carnegie Mellon University | 1998 |
| Eduardo D. Glandt | University of Pennsylvania | 1997 |
| Gary L. Haller | Yale University | 1996 |
| Robert S. Langer | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1995 |
| Julio M. Ottino | Northwestern University | 1994 |
| Timothy J. Anderson | University of Florida | 1993 |
| William B. Russel | Princeton University | 1992 |
| Csaba Horváth | Yale University | 1991 |
| Richard C. Alkire | University of Illinois | 1990 |
| Arthur W. Westerberg | Carnegie Mellon University | 1989 |
| W. Harmon Ray | University of Wisconsin | 1988 |
| Adel R. Sarofim | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1987 |
| Thomas J. Hanratty | University of Illinois | 1986 |
| Charles W. Tobias | University of California, Berkeley | 1985 |
| Edwin N. Lightfoot, Jr. | University of Wisconsin | 1984 |
| Dan Luss | University of Houston | 1983 |
| H. Ted Davis | University of Minnesota | 1982 |
| Jerry McAfee | Gulf Oil Corporation | 1981 |
| Neal R. Amundson | University of Houston | 1980 |
| Morton M. Denn | University of Delaware | 1979 |
| L. E. Scriven | University of Minnesota | 1978 |
| Michel Boudart | Stanford University | 1977 |
| Leon Lapidus | Princeton University | 1976 |
| Monte Throdahl | Monsanto Company | 1975 |
| R. Byron Bird | University of Wisconsin | 1974 |
| John Sinfelt | Exxon Research and Engineering Company | 1973 |
| Andreas Acrivos | Stanford University | 1972 |
| Harry Drickamer | University of Illinois | 1971 |
| Rutherford Aris | University of Minnesota | 1970 |
| John Prausnitz | University of California Berkeley | 1969 |
| Arthur Metzner | University of Delaware | 1968 |