Y.A. Liu receives Warren K. Lewis Award for chemical engineering education
Liu is being honored for his contributions to excellence in sustainable design education, research and practice, and student mentoring over five decades.
Alumni Distinguished Professor Y.A. Liu has been named the 2025 recipient of the Warren K. Lewis Award for Chemical Engineering Education, the highest international honor for educators in the field.
Presented by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and sponsored by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, the award recognizes Liu’s “five decades of excellence in sustainable design education, research and practice, student mentoring, pioneering textbooks, creative scholarship, and leadership in innovative sustainable engineering training.”
Named for Warren K. Lewis, an MIT professor often called the “father of modern chemical engineering,” the award honors inspirational teachers whose influence has shaped education and industry worldwide.
Liu began his teaching career at Auburn University in 1974, where he received the Outstanding Engineering Faculty Award multiple times for his teaching excellence. Since joining Virginia Tech and the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1982, Liu has taught the department’s most challenging capstone senior design courses, guiding more than 4,000 students through job searches, graduate school applications, and real-world projects on topics such as plastics recycling, water conservation, 3D printing, and renewable feedstock product development.
Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke praised Liu’s commitment to experiential learning. “For his design courses, Y.A. actively recruited industry partners to develop hands-on sustainable design projects and provide experienced project advisors to work closely with graduating seniors each spring semester over the past 30 years,” Clarke said. “I congratulate Y.A. on this international award and his continued commitment to student mentorship and success.”
Liu’s scholarship includes nine textbooks that introduced artificial intelligence and neural computing to chemical engineers as well as widely used resources on energy and water savings, petroleum refining, polymer process modeling, sustainable design, and machine learning. His work with industry has led to major reductions in water use, wastewater discharge, and carbon dioxide emissions at global chemical companies. As a member of the Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Liu has also advanced research in plastics depolymerization for the circular economy.
Former students and colleagues cite Liu’s demanding but rewarding teaching style. “I enjoy learning about how other schools and departments operate, and for years I made a practice of asking our graduate students to tell me about their undergraduate experiences. Without exception, every Virginia Tech graduate I ever asked immediately began to talk about Y.A. Liu’s design course, paying him the highest compliment a teacher can receive: “‘He is the hardest and best teacher I ever had,’” said Richard Felder, professor emeritus at North Carolina State University and past award recipient.
Virginia Tech chemical engineering department head and former student Steven Wrenn said, “Y.A. taught me senior design, so I can personally attest to the positive experience and value of his teaching. I implemented one of the approaches he taught during my first year in industry.”
Lawrence B. Evans, MIT professor emeritus and past president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, who nominated Liu for the award, said, “Professor Liu has set an amazing standard of dedication and tireless work to advance the use of rigorous modeling and optimization to accelerate the development of sustainable chemical processes. He has provided the creativity to identify important new problems and develop innovative methods to teach others how to solve them.”
Since 1986, Liu has devoted his university breaks to helping U.S. and Asian industries with engineering training. He has demonstrated global leadership as the founder and instructor of the Sinopec and PetroChina Simulation Training Centers in Beijing, co-sponsored by Aspen Technology and Virginia Tech since 1997. Liu and the instructors he trained have taught 7,500 practicing engineers to complete numerous projects to improve sustainability.
For his contributions, Liu has received numerous national and international honors, including the Friendship Award from the Chinese government, Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professors of the Year Award, the Fred Merryfield Design Award, the Process Development Research Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Professional Achievement Award for Innovations in Green Process Engineering, and Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor Award.
Despite the accolades, Liu said his greatest reward is hearing from former students. “Their continuous cheering and encouragement, together with the strong support I receive from the university, is the most significant factor in all I have achieved,” he said.
Liu received his bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University, his master's degree from Tufts University, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, all in chemical engineering.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is the leading global organization for chemical engineering professionals and students with more than 60,000 members in over 110 countries and 431 student chapters in 56 countries. Liu will receive the honor in November at the group's annual meeting in Boston.
