Sigma Xi has selected Professor William J. Koros of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to receive the 2025 Monie A. Ferst Award, the honor society’s highest distinction for excellence in scientific mentorship and educational leadership.
The honor recognizes Koros, who holds the Roberto C. Goiuzueta Chair and is the Georgia Research Allliance Eminent Scholar in Membranes, for his five-decade record of advancing membrane‑based separations while cultivating a global community of engineers and scientists.
Established in 1977, the award includes a medal and $10,000. Sigma Xi will present the 2025 award at its annual meeting this fall. In addition, a day-long symposium (to be announced) will focus on the achievements of Koros’ former students.
Koros has graduated 98 PhD students, 26 MS students and guided more than 40 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars. Members of this cohort now lead research universities, direct industrial R&D programs, and hold senior positions in government laboratories. Former trainees consistently describe their years in his laboratory as a defining period that shaped their technical careers and personal outlook.
Koros’s mentoring philosophy centers on purposeful independence. He provides open‑door access, encourages students to “pass it forward,” and offers room to explore, fail, and succeed—an approach that alumni credit for building confidence and leadership skills.
He routinely invests his own time in one‑on‑one manuscript reviews, white‑board problem‑solving sessions that can stretch for hours, and professional‑development opportunities such as presentation coaching. He also designs targeted courses for non‑traditional and transfer students, markedly improving their retention in chemical engineering.
The same rigor guides his research. Koros helped established the modern framework for gas sorption and transport in glassy polymers and pioneered carbon molecular‑sieve membranes, contributions captured in more than 450 refereed publications and more than 40 U.S. patents.
His election to both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors reflects the impact of these advances on energy‑efficient separations and carbon‑management technologies. During a 17‑year tenure as editor‑in‑Chief of the Journal of Membrane Science, he helped steer the discipline’s growth and set enduring publication standards.
Upon learning of the award, Koros said: “ I am both delighted and humbled to be receiving this recognition. In fact, besides being delighted to think back over the many wonderful students and scholars that I have worked with, I am humbled to know that I was only a contributor to the many publications that bear my name. Moreover, without the loving support and advice of my dear spouse, Ann, I would not have gotten through many challenging times we faced in our more than 50 years together. She is the wise one in the family.”
The Monie A. Ferst Award recipient is selected by a committee made up of Sigma Xi's Southeast Regional Director, a Ferst family member, the current president and immediate-past president of the Georgia Tech Chapter, plus several members-at-large, including previous Ferst Award recipients, based on the nominees' areas of expertise.