Seven outstanding alumni have been selected as recipients of 2025 Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Alumni Achievement Awards. These awards are given in recognition of professional distinction through outstanding leadership, contributions to the field, creativity and entrepreneurship as well as service to society, the professional community, and the department, college or university. All awardees will be recognized at the ChBE Alumni Awards Ceremony.
This year's winners are:
2025 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award:
Eric Choban (MS 02, PhD 04)
Eric Choban is an international executive with over 20 years of progressive leadership experience across multiple corporate functions. Choban began his career at 3M’s Corporate Research Process Laboratory in St Paul, Minn., where he was awarded one of their top technical awards for the development of microchemical systems. He then joined DuPont in Wilmington, Del., where he led their global Innovation Center initiative and received their highest commercial award before leading their global Textile and Industrial Markets business. Choban later joined DSM where he now leads their North American Health Nutrition and Care business as Senior Vice President based out of Princeton, NJ. In addition to his professional achievements, Choban has demonstrated a strong commitment to community service with a passion for volunteering at local soup kitchens and tutoring. He holds a Ph.D. (2004) and M.S. (2002) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a B.S. (2000) in Chemical Engineering from Villanova University, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Howard Ingber (BS 56)
Howard Ingber earned his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1956. After graduation, he began his career with Standard Oil of Indiana, then moved to California where he became a successful salesman of continuous process analyzers. During this period, Ingber pioneered the idea of pre-packaging the small-diameter piping, various electrical conduits and terminal boxes associated with analyzers in a common “house,” significantly increasing the number of working analyzers new plants had at start-up. He bought a control panel manufacturing company in order to design, manufacture, sell and install these integrated analyzer systems, and quickly grew his business from two to 180 employees. In the 1970s, Ingber sold his company and moved to Paris, where he joined a French firm and began advocating for the use of prepackaged process analyzers internationally. Today, Ingber’s approach is the industry standard.
Andrew Miller (BS 03)
Andrew Miller received his B.S. from the University of Illinois (2003) with highest honors, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008) as a Presidential Fellow. Miller has more than 15 years’ experience in the biotech/biopharma industry, with expertise in research and development, company building, capital formation and corporate strategy. He was Founder of Karuna Therapeutics and inventor of KarXT/COBENFY™ – the first non-dopamine-based treatment and first new class of treatment for schizophrenia in 35 years. Under his leadership at Karuna, the company grew from one employee to over 350 during which time Miller oversaw clinical development, nonclinical development, regulatory, quality, manufacturing, formulation development, human resources and corporate development. The company was acquired by BMS for $14 billion in 2024. Miller is currently Chairman of the Board at Progentos Therapeutics. Among his accolades, Miller was named to Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in Health in 2025.
Jack Winnick (BS 58)
Jack Winnick has spent most of his career as a professional engineer and educator. After receiving his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1958) and Ph.D. from University of Oklahoma (1963), he taught at several schools including The Georgia Institute of Technology where he is currently Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering. His career includes work for NASA, where he aided in the development of life-support equipment on the Shuttle, Skylab and Space Station, and consulting in the oil refining, aerospace, nuclear and power industries. In addition to hundreds of technical articles, he is the author of a widely-used text on thermodynamics and holds several patents in the field of electrochemical engineering and pollution control. Outside of engineering, Winnick has also written several novels.
2025 Young Alumni Achievement Award:
Young Alumni Achievement Awards honor graduates who have earned their most recent degree within the previous 15 years.
Bryan Boudouris (BS 04)
Bryan W. Boudouris is the Vice President for Research & Economic Development and a professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama, roles he has held since April 2024. Prior to Alabama, he was the R. Norris and Eleanor Shreve Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering and a professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University where he also served as the Associate Vice President for Strategic Interdisciplinary Research. From 2020-2022, he served on an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignment as a Program Director in the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation. Born and raised in Illinois, he received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2004. After receiving his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2009, he conducted postdoctoral research from 2009 to 2011 at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since starting his independent career at Purdue University in 2011, he has been the recipient of many awards including the AFOSR YIP award, the DARPA YFA, the NSF CAREER Award, the AIChE Owens Corning Early Career Award, the Saville Lectureship at Princeton University, and the John H. Dillon Medal from the APS.
Brian Rosen (MS 10, PhD 13)
Brian Rosen is the Vice Dean for International Affairs in the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University, an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the head of the Energy Materials Laboratory. The laboratory specializes in the design of novel ceramic catalysts for fuel cells (PEMFC, AFC, H2/NH3-SOFC), and synthetic fuel production (H2, NH3, syngas) via thermochemical and electrochemical routes. The Rosen lab investigates ways to modulate catalyst activity by tuning the metal-ceramic interface via multi-scale defect engineering, strain engineering, solid-state phase separations, and electronic structure modulation. Rosen was named a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellow in 2010. His work was the basis for a U.S.-based startup company, Dioxide Materials, which develops industrial CO2 electrolyzers. He was a co-founder for the Israeli startup Fonto Power (acquired by SolarEdge in 2023) which developed SOFC-Battery hybrid systems. Rosen recently co-founded PyroH2, a natural gas pyrolysis company based on his multiphase catalyst design. He received the Young Innovator Award in Nanocatalysis Research by Springer in 2021, the Climate Solutions Breakthrough Research Prize in 2023, and was elected as a Senior Member to the U.S. National Academy of Inventors in 2025.
Meredith Sellers (PhD 11)
Meredith Sellers is a Principal Engineer in the Metallurgy & Corrosion Engineering Practice at Exponent Inc., an engineering and scientific consulting firm. As a Licensed Professional Chemical Engineer, she leverages her expertise to evaluate and investigate failures associated with material properties, processing, and performance. Since joining Exponent in 2012, Sellers has assisted a diverse array of clients in the petrochemical, chemical, natural gas utility, aerospace, microelectronics, and consumer products industries. She has been appointed as a testifying expert in international arbitrations as well as in United States legal proceedings. Sellers obtained her Ph.D. degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2011. She is a long-standing member of the Society of Women Engineers and the Association for Women in Science and has led numerous diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in industry and academia over the last 20 years.