Peter T. Cummings, the John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering, will receive the 2010 Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in a ceremony Nov. 7 at the organization’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City.
Cummings was specifically cited “for outstanding contributions through research, service to the Institute, and national leadership on behalf of the profession.”
In 2009, Cummings was named a Fellow of the AIChE and in 2007 he received the institute’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award. Cummings also was one of nine faculty members featured in “Chemical Engineering in the Next 25 Years: Twenty-five of the profession’s thought-leaders speculate about what the future holds,” an article published in the November 2008 issue of Chemical and Engineering Progress, the AIChE’s monthly magazine, which was devoted to the institute’s centennial.
He also is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
As the principal scientist at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge, Tenn., Cummings leads planning of the research agenda for a team of 95 researchers and support staff. The center is a U.S. Department of Energy/Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Center.
In April 2009 the White House announced the establishment of a new multimillion-dollar Energy Frontier Research Center at Oak Ridge. The Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center is one of two planned for the facility. Cummings serves as a member of the FIRST leadership team and as a co-principal investigator.
Cummings research focuses on molecular modeling of fluids, computational nanoscience, molecular rheology of lubricants and mathematical modeling of cancer invasion.