Beginning in 2008 and named in honor of Dr. Darsh T. Wasan, Illinois Tech's Vice President for International Affairs and Distinguished Motorola Professor of Chemical Engineering, this annual lecture series features prominent speakers from the STEAM community and highlights important contemporary topics.
John L. Anderson is the president of the National Academy of Engineering since July 1, 2019. He was born in Wilmington, DE, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware in 1967 and a PhD degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1971, both in chemical engineering. He served as president of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering from 2007 – 2015. Before that he was provost and executive vice president at Case Western Reserve University (2004–2007), following 28 years at Carnegie Mellon University including 8 years as dean of the College of Engineering and 11 years as head of the chemical engineering department. He began his professional career as assistant professor of chemical engineering at Cornell University (1971-1976).
Dr. Anderson was elected to the NAE in 1992 for contributions to the understanding of colloidal hydrodynamics and membrane transport phenomena. He was elected an NAE Councillor in 2015 and served on the Executive Compensation Committee and Temporary Nominating Committee on Member Diversity. He has also served on the Membership Policy Committee, Nominating Committee (chair), Chemical Engineering Section (chair, vice chair, section liaison, member), Chemical Engineering Peer Committee (chair), and Committee on Membership (immediate past chair, chair, vice chair, peer committee chair). His service also includes numerous National Academies activities, such as the Committee on Determining Basic Research Needs to Interrupt the Improvised Explosive Device Delivery Chain (chair); Committee on Review of Existing and Potential Standoff Explosives Detection Techniques (chair); Organizing Committee for the National Security and Homeland Defense Workshop (co-chair); Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (co-chair); and Ford Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Review Panel on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering.
In addition to his NAE membership, Dr. Anderson is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was appointed to the National Science Board in 2014 for a six-year term. He received the Acrivos Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and an award from the Pittsburgh Section of AIChE for “Outstanding Professional Accomplishments in the Field of Academics,” and he is listed on the Alumni Wall of Fame at the University of Delaware. In 2012 he received the National Engineering Award from the American Association of Engineering Societies. He has held visiting professorships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation), University of Melbourne (Australia), and Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen (the Netherlands). He has presented guest lectures at universities throughout the United States and is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. He has received honorary doctorates from Case Western Reserve University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Delaware.
Darsh T. Wasan leads the university’s international initiatives, serving as IIT’s chief ambassador. Wasan is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Since joining the IIT faculty in 1964, he has made wide- ranging contributions to the university. In 1988 he secured a gift of a five-building campus from CPC International, Inc., and with an initial grant of $3.7 million from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) founded an innovative national center for research and education in food safety and technology (now called the Institute for Food Safety and Health/IFSH). Today, IFSH is a model for cooperation among academe, industry, and government. In 1997 he initiated delivery of cutting-edge master’s programs to India via distance learning programs. He established centers in India, Europe, China, and Korea, forged relationships with universities around the world, and increased international enrollment from 15 percent to 50 percent of IIT’s total enrollment. In his 58 years at IIT, he has also held nearly every leadership post, including department chair, interim dean of engineering, vice president for research and technology, provost, and senior vice president for academic affairs.
Wasan came to the U.S. from India as an undergraduate. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois (1960) and his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley (1965). He has coauthored more than 400 publications, including the textbook Interfacial Transport Processes and Rheology with David Edwards (Ph.D. CHE ’87) and Howard Brenner, and holds 10 patents. Wasan has supervised and mentored 65 doctoral students, 60 M.S. students, and 15 postdoctoral fellows. His numerous awards include the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation, the American Chemical Society National Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Fundamental and Applied Research, the American Society for Engineering Education Chemical Engineering Division Lectureship Award, and the Western Electric Fund Award for excellence in instruction of engineering students; and the IIT Excellence in Teaching Award. He served as editor-in- chief of the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science for more than 20 years. Wasan and his wife, Usha, have two sons, Ajay and Kern, and two grandsons, Arjun and Ashwin.
