Professor Krista Walton was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Walton, Georgia Tech’s associate vice president for Research Operations and Infrastructure and the Robert "Bud" Moeller Faculty Fellow in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), will receive the award at the AIChE meeting in San Diego, California, this October. 

Walton focuses her research on the synthesis, characterization, and scale-up of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and other porous materials for adsorption-based gas separations.

Starting more than a decade ago, Walton became one of the few researchers in the world to focus on understanding the chemical stability of MOFs and has gained an international reputation for her work by helping shape the landscape of MOF applications in separations. She has published more than 135 peer-reviewed articles, including a seminal review on the water stability of MOFs in 2014.

Walton has led over $36M in external research projects as principal investigator since joining Georgia Tech in 2009.

“I am incredibly proud of the contributions my group has made to understanding the stability of MOFs and of our collective impact on the scientific community,” Walton said. “I’ve mentored over 80 postdocs, PhD students, and undergraduate researchers, and each person brought their own unique talents and perspectives to the lab. Guiding them, collaborating with them, and learning from them has been the most rewarding aspect of my career.”

ChBE@GT has a long history in separations innovations, with Professor Christopher W. Jones receiving this award in 2023, preceded by Professor David Sholl 2018 and Professor Amyn Teja in  2002. Professor William Koros won the award while at the University of Texas-Austin in 1995.