Israel Wachs

Israel Wachs, the G. Whitney Snyder Professor of chemical engineering, has received many of the top awards in the field of catalysis and has been a pioneer in the use of laser Raman spectroscopy to better understand the complex structures of atomically dispersed surface oxides. In 2003, Wachs won the Industrial Innovation Award from the American Chemical Society and the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Practice Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 2002, he received the Clean Air Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for inventing a catalytic process that could save North America’s paper mills up to $300 million a year while eliminating most emissions of pollutants contained in acid rain and greenhouse gases. Wachs holds two dozen patents and has received awards for excellence in catalysis research from both the Michigan Catalysis Society and the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York. Wachs, who joined the faculty in 1987, holds a B.E. from the City University of New York and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford. He spent a decade as a corporate research scientist with Exxon before his appointment to the faculty.

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