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| Vol. 17, No. 4 | Sept. 25, 1997 |
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| Vol. 17, No. 4 | Sept. 25, 1997 |
For his many contributions to research and education, Stanley I. Sandler, Henry Belin du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of the Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics, has received many honors and national and international recognition during his career.
But the 18 months have been particularly award-laden for this scientist whose research focuses on applied thermodynamics and phase equilibrium, separations, processes and statistical mechanics.
Most recently, Sandler was named to receive the prestigious E. V. Murphree Award of the American Chemical Society, which is given for "outstanding research of a theoretical or experimental nature" in chemistry or chemical engineering. The award and award lecture will be presented in Dallas in March.
Next August, in Portugal, he also will receive the Rossini Lecture Award of the thermodynamics section of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, a large, worldwide professional organization.
The honors started piling up last year. In November 1996, Sandler was given the Warren K. Lewis Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the major award given for contributions to and leadership in chemical engineering education. Also in 1996, Sandler was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Only approximately 170 out of 55,000 chemical engineers are currently members of the academy.
In addition, Sandler's advice is sought in a number of areas. He serves on the National Research Council Committee on Alternate Technologies for the Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons, which will advise the U.S. Army and Congress on alternatives to incineration for the safe disposal of U.S. chemical weapons to meet the recently signed chemical weapons ban treaty.
"The United States has 70 million pounds of chemical weapons at seven sites, which under the chemical weapons treaty must be reduced by the year 2007 to 2.2 pounds or one kilogram," Sandler said. "The goal of the committee is to seek viable alternative technologies for the destruction of these weapons while maintaining a dialogue with concerned community and environmental groups, as well as vendors of the technology."
Sandler serves on the advisory committee of the chemical engineering departments of Carnegie Mellon and Princeton universities, and was the first to form a departmental review committee at the University of Delaware during his tenure as chairperson of chemical engineering. This February, at the request of the University of Melbourne, he traveled to Australia to review their chemical engineering department.
He also serves on the editorial advisory boards of Fluid Phase Equilibria, Indian Chemical Engineer (Calcutta) and Engineering Schience and Technology (Malaysia).
In demand as an international lecturer, Sandler gave talks at the universities of Capetown and Durban and other institutions in South Africa in June and at the universities of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia and the large oil company, Petrobras, in Brazil in August. In Brazil, several people followed him to different locations to hear his lectures.
In the United States, he was invited to become the inaugural E.A. Mason Memorial Lecturer at Brown University, which had special meaning for Sandler, since he had worked closely on research projects with Mason early in his career.
A prolific author who has published approximately 225 articles in professional journals, Sandler is the author of a textbook, Chemical and Engineering Thermodynamics, the third edition of which will be published in 1998.
He also is coauthor of a monograph, entitled "Vapor-Liquid Equilibria Modeling with Cubic Equations of State," which will be published by the Cambridge University Press in 1998.
A graduate of the City College of New York with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, Sandler joined the UD faculty in 1967 and, in addition to serving as chairperson of the Department of Chemical Engineering, served as interim dean of the College of Engineering. In 1993, Sandler, who teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, received UD's prestigious Francis Alison Award recognizing scholarship, professional achievements and dedication.
In 1994, Sandler was named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and also received the organization's Professional Progress Award in 1984.
His biographical listings include Who's Who in the World.
"The past few years have been an extraordinary and fulfilling period in my career," Sandler said, "and it is gratifying to be recognized as both a researcher and educator in chemical engineering."
-Sue Swyers Moncure
