By Leigh Thomas | October 28, 2020
T. Bond Calloway Jr., a senior fellow at the University of South Carolina College of Engineering and Computing, is the recipient of the 2020 F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award. The award is presented by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and recognizes a chemical engineer for outstanding contributions and service to the Institute. The award will be presented during the 2020 Virtual AIChE Annual Meeting November 16-20.
Calloway is being recognized for his role in the development of a manufacturing institute for the chemical industry. He said, “I realized in 2013 while at Savannah River National Lab that chemical manufacturing for the nuclear industry was over 30 years behind the U.S. chemical industry. We needed a new way of manufacturing, and at the same time the Department of Energy was looking at ways to improve technology in the chemical industry.”
Calloway worked with the National Science Foundation and contacts within AIChE’s community of volunteers to launch a workshop on process intensification in 2014. The idea was then developed within the U.S. Department of Energy, which hosted an additional workshop in 2015.
When the DOE issued a funding opportunity announcement in the spring of 2016, Calloway, alongside teams from Georgia Tech and AIChE, developed a proposal to use an existing professional society (AIChE) as the lead for a manufacturing institute. AIChE was ultimately awarded the institute, which is now known as RAPID – Rapid Advancement of Process Intensification Deployment – and has over 100 partners and will leverage $70 million of federal funding and at least $70 million of private investment.
Calloway’s efforts to develop the strategy, policy and co-lead the proposal for RAPID increased AIChE’s operating revenue by 56 percent and sparked additional topical conferences, education programs and innovation programs.
He said, “These manufacturing institutes have a big impact. The federal government has started 14 of them, and for South Carolina and the Savannah River National Lab to be involved in leading one is a big deal, and also part of what led me to UofSC.”
AIChE is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 60,000 members from more than 110 countries. The F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award is sponsored by the Dow company, which combines science and technology knowledge to develop premier materials science solutions that are essential to human progress.
Calloway was previously an associate laboratory director at the Savannah River National Laboratory, where he led a team of scientists and engineers conducting energy materials research. He has more than 36 years of industrial experience in research and development, design, construction and operation of nuclear/chemical plants. He served as AIChE president in 2017.