Benny D. Freeman

Benny D. Freeman
Born	29 April 1961 Hendersonville, NC
Nationality	United States
Education	Chemical Engineering
Alma mater	UC, Berkeley (Ph.D), NC State (B.S.)
Known for	gas, vapor, and liquid solubility, diffusion and permeability in polymers and polymer based materials, membranes, water purification membranes, gas separation membranes, upper bound theory, ion sorption, diffusion, permeation and conduction in water-swollen polymers

Benny D. Freeman

Benny D. Freeman (born 29 April 1961 in Hendersonville, North Carolina) is a chemical engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from NC State University in 1983 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. Afterwards, during 1988-89, he served as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris in the Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Structurale et Macromoléculaire, Paris, France. He then returned to his undergraduate Alma Mater, NC State, where he served on the chemical engineering faculty from 1989-2001. In 2001, he moved to The University of Texas at Austin where, today, he serves as the William J. (Bill) Murray, Jr. Endowed Chair in Engineering in the chemical engineering department.

Awards

• Reilley Lectureship, University of Notre Dame (2020)
• Membrane Society of Australasia (MSA) Distinguished Scholar Lectureship (2019)
• American Chemical Society POLY/PMSE Plenary Lecture (2019)
• Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot Lecture, University of Wisconsin (2019)
• North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Fellow (2017)
• Fulbright Distinguished Chair (2016-2017)
• PMSE Distinguished Service Award (from Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division of ACS) (2015)
• World Premier International (WPI) Professor of International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I²CNER) at Kyushu University, Japan (2014-2020)
• Fellow of the Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research Division of ACS (2014)
• AIChE Clarence (Larry) G. Gerhold Award (2013)
• Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award (2013)
• Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Award (2013)
• Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings (from PMSE Division of ACS) (2012)
• AAAS Fellow (2011)
• ACS Fellow (2011)
• AIChE Fellow  (2011)
• Fellow of the PMSE Division of ACS (2010)
• ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science (2009)
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology (2008)
• IBM Faculty Award (2008, 2012)
• University CO-OP Research Excellence Award for Best Research Paper in 2006 (2007)
• American Chemical Society (ACS) PMSE Cooperative Research Award (2002)
• National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering – Japan Symposium (2002)
• Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Project of the Year (2001)
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1997, 2001)
• Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award (2000)
• National Technological University Outstanding Teaching Certificate (2000)
• Academy of Outstanding Teachers (1997)
• College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award (1997)
• United Technologies Excellence in Teaching Award (1997)
• ALCOA Foundation Research Achievement Award (1996)
• National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (1995)
• NSF Young Investigator Award  (1992-1996)
• 3M Nontenured Faculty Grant Award  (1991-1994)
• NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship  (1987)
• Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Instructor  (1986)
• NSF Graduate Fellowship  (1984)
• Berkeley Fellowship  (1983)
• Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship  (1983)
• P.V. Danckwerts Senior Research Prize in Chemical Engineering  (1983)
• Eastern NC Section AIChE Award  (1983)
• Special Service Award from NC Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Pi  (1983)
• E.I. duPont Ph.D. Fellowship  (1982)
• Allied Merit Scholarship  (1982)
• SOHIO Merit Scholarship  (1981)

Selected Publications (from >450)

Greenlee, L.F., B.D. Freeman and D.F. Lawler, “Ozonation of Phosphonate Antiscalants Used for Reverse Osmosis Desalination: Parameter Effects on the Extent of Oxidation,” Chemical Engineering Journal, 244, 505-513 (2014).

Freeman, B.D., “Basis of Permeability/Selectivity Tradeoff Relations in Polymeric Gas Separation Membranes,” Macromolecules, 32, 375-380 (1999).

Merkel, T.C., B.D. Freeman, R.J. Spontak, Z. He, I. Pinnau, P. Meakin and A.J. Hill, “Ultrapermeable, Reverse-Selective Nanocomposite Membranes”, Science, 296, 519-522 (2002).

Merkel, T.C., V.I. Bondar, K. Nagai, B.D. Freeman, and I. Pinnau, “Gas Sorption, Diffusion, and Permeation in Poly(dimethylsiloxane),” Journal of Polymer Science: Part B, Polymer Physics, 38, 415-434 (2000).

Park, H.B., C.H. Jung, Y.M. Lee, A.J. Hill, S.J. Pas, S.T. Mudie, E. van Wagner, B.D. Freeman, and D.J. Cookson, “Polymers with Cavities Tuned for Fast, Selective Transport of Small Molecules and Ions,” Science, 318, 254-258 (2007).

Geise, G.M., H.-S. Lee, D.J. Miller, B.D. Freeman, J.E. McGrath, and D.R. Paul, “Water Purification by Membranes:  The Role of Polymer Science,” Journal of Polymer Science: Part B.  Polymer Physics, 48, 1685-1718 (2010).

Park, H.B., J. Kamcev, L.M. Robeson, M. Elimelech, and B.D. Freeman, “Maximizing the Right Stuff: The Tradeoff Between Membrane Permeability and Selectivity,” Science, 356(6343), eaab0530 (2017).

Sanders, D.F., Z.P. Smith, R. Guo, L.M. Robeson, J.E. McGrath, D.R. Paul, and B.D. Freeman, “Energy-Efficient Polymeric Gas Separation Membranes for a Sustainable Future:  A Review,” Polymer, 54, 4729-4761 (2013).

Lin, H., E. van Wagner, B.D. Freeman, L.G. Toy, and R.P. Gupta, “Plasticization-Enhanced H₂ Purification Using Polymeric Membranes,” Science, 311(5761), 639-642 (2006).

Geise, G.M., H.B. Park, A.C. Sagle, B.D. Freeman, and J.E. McGrath, “Water Permeability and Water/Salt Selectivity Tradeoff in Polymers for Desalination,” Journal of Membrane Science, 369(1-2), 130-138 (2011).