Dow’s Abhishek Roy Receives SCI Gordon E. Moore Medal

The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), America Section, announced it is awarding the 13th annual SCI Gordon E. Moore Medal to Abhishek Roy, Ph.D. Roy is the lead product research and development manager and technical platform leader for the reverse osmosis membrane chemistry platform in Dow Energy and Water Solutions.

SCI established the Gordon E. Moore Medal to recognize early-career success in innovation, as reflected both in market impact and improvement to quality of life.

Roy is credited as the primary inventor of DOW FILMTEC ECO Reverse Osmosis Elements. The solution fights water scarcity by delivering 40% better purification with 30% less energy. FILMTEC ECO Elements require less energy to pump water through the membrane and less chemicals for cleaning. These combined benefits result in significant operational savings for customers, ranging from 16 to 19%, and can ultimately impact millions of lives.

Besides water-energy nexus, Roy and his team contributed toward addressing two most critical emerging needs: increasing availability of fresh drinking water in developing countries and taking steps toward making water reuse economical and practical. The introduction of breakthrough, residential tank-less product reduced the footprint cost. DOW FILMTEC XFRLE product is enabling low-energy operation under challenging water in water reuse applications. These technologies have enabled more than 10 new products over the last five years.

“The availability of clean water is one of the most difficult challenges Dow is helping to solve. Abhishek is the talented scientist behind the breakthrough innovation that will deliver a more sustainable water supply to the world,” said A.N. Sreeram, Dow senior vice president and chief technology officer. “We are proud that Abhishek’s outstanding contributions have been honored with the Gordon E. Moore Medal. It is a fitting recognition for work that will improve the lives of people around the world.”

Roy also received the Dow Sustainability Innovator Award in 2014. The DOW FILMTEC ECO Reverse Osmosis element is a “Breakthrough to World Challenges” under Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, recognition that it played a significant role in the company attaining its goals and that the product is both an ecological and a commercial success. The DOW FILMTEC ECO Reverse Osmosis element is also a 2014 Edison Award winner in the Energy and Sustainability category.

The Moore Medal will be awarded Sept. 13, 2016, during a luncheon at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) headquarters in Philadelphia as part of Innovation Day 2016. This event will be jointly hosted by SCI and CHF, gathering more than 150 researchers from industrial laboratories to discuss current trends and issues in chemical research.

Roy earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech under the guidance of James E. McGrath in the macromolecular science and engineering program. He has authored 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds 10 issued patents, with many pending on his reverse osmosis work. Roy has been recognized with many awards, including Virginia Tech’s outstanding recent alumnus award from the College of Science.

Roy is the fourth Dow researcher to win the medal in its 13-year lifetime. He joins Jerzy Klosin (2013), Edmund M. “Ted” Carnahan (2008) and George Barclay (2004) as Moore medalists from Dow.

Source: The Dow Chemical Co.