The Ashton Hall Cary and Freeman H. Cary Lectureship Series in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering was established in 1984 as a memorial to Ashton Hall Cary, a 1943 chemical engineering graduate of Georgia Tech Cary served in the U.S. Army after graduation and later built a career in Georgia’s textile industry. He was a native of LaGrange, Georgia, where he was prominent in local politics and business and active in many charitable and civic organizations. At the time of his death in 1983, Mr. Cary was a production consultant for Kleen-Tex Industries.

The Cary Lectureship Series was initiated with a gift from Dr. Freeman Cary, who also studied chemical engineering at Tech. Dr. Cary, who is Ashton’s brother, received his M.D. from Emory University in 1950 and later became the attending physician for the U.S. Congress. The Cary Lectureship Fund is used to sponsor a lecture series by distinguished scholars in fields of significance to chemical engineering. The visiting lecturers, in addition to presenting seminars on recent engineering advances, participate in informal discussions with Georgia Tech faculty and students.

2024 speaker: Zhenan Bao, Professor of Chemical Engineering Stanford University (Ashton Hall Cary and Freeman H. Cary Lecture)

Previous Cary Lecturers

Linda Broadbelt, 2023
Cato T. Laurencin, 2022
Andreas Seidel-Morgenstern, 2021
Esther S. Takeuchi, 2020
Carol Hall, 2019
Sharon C. Glotzer, 2018
Frank Bates, 2017
Paula Hammond, 2016
Enrique Iglesia, 2015
Joan Brennecke, 2014
Ronald W. Rousseau, 2013
William Russel, 2012
Mark E. Davis, 2011
Klavs F. Jensen, 2010
David A. Tirrell, 2009
Bruce C. Gates, 2008
Nathan S. Lewis, 2007
Julia S. Higgins, 2006
Gregory Stephanopoulos, 2004
Richard M. Gross, 2003
Ignacio E. Grossman, 2002
Eric W. Kaler, 2001
Daniel I. C. Wang, 2000
John M. Prausnitz, 1999
Pablo G. Debenedetti, 1998
Donald R. Paul, 1997
Joseph A. Miller, Jr., 1996
Gregory J. McRae, 1995
Stanley I. Sandler, 1994
L. Louis Hegedus, 1993
Matthew Tirrell, 1992
Robert S. Langer, 1991
Manfred Morari, 1990
C. Judson King, 1989
Octave Levenspiel, 1988
Giovanni Astarita, 1987
Edward E. David, Jr., 1986
Ilya Prigogine, 1985