J. Carson Meredith, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is the 2024 recipient of the Andrew Chase Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Forest and Plant Bioproducts Division.

Meredith will receive the award at the Annual AIChE Meeting in San Diego California,  later this month.

The award recognizes Meredith’s research in nanocellulose chemical modification, composites, and cellulose-based renewable barrier coatings, which has resulted in seven patent applications, one commercial license, and ongoing research projects with six companies, reflecting the impact these advancements are making. His group recently reported the first successful recycling and reuse of nanocellulose gas barrier films and achieved one of the lowest water vapor barrier coatings derived from cellulose to date. 

Meredith, ChBE’s James Preston Harris Faculty Fellow,  is executive director of Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute, which aims for future where plant biomass will enable a carbon neutral society and manufacturing infrastructure through traditional and emerging products. 

The Chase Award also recognizes Meredith’s leadership role, in which he has restructured RBI to be more inclusive of other disciplines, more focused on key impact areas in defossilization through bioproducts and the emerging bioeconomy.

For example, RBI has made investments in space and helped to secure funding and other resources for more than 70 GT faculty, including the addition of 23 new faculty not previously supported by RBI. These include five new schools across the College of Engineering, College of Sciences, and Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. "This interdisciplinarity is crucial to the role of chemical engineering within the broader bioeconomy space," Meredith said.

Meredith serves on the TAPPI International Research Management Committee as well as the boards of the Joint Bio-Energy Institute; the Bioproducts Institute of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; and the Executive Board of the AIChE Forest and Plant Bioproducts Division.