Lightfoot receives National Medal of Science

President George W. Bush named a UW–Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering as one of eight recipients of the 2004 National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor for science and technology.

Hilldale Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biological Engineering Edwin N. Lightfoot was honored for pioneering contributions to scientific research and education. He is the 11th UW–Madison scientist to receive the nation’s most prestigious science award since it was established in 1959.

Lightfoot joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1953. He became one of the first biochemical engineering professors in the United States, a forerunner to biomedical engineering. According to the National Science Foundation, which oversees the award process, Lightfoot was recognized for “vigorous and sustained leadership in developing the fields of biochemical and biomedical engineering, particularly in the areas of blood oxygenation, oxygen diffusion into tissue, mathematical modeling of biological reaction pathways, bioseparations and studies of diabetic responses.”

Among students, he is known as one of the iconographic authors of a textbook, “Transport Phenomena,” first published in 1960, and which is considered a classic and landmark textbook in chemical and biological engineering. The text helped lay the foundation for the modern biotechnology industry.

“This award is really a testament to the excellent atmosphere in which I have worked for over half a century,” Lightfoot says. “Wisconsin was already a world leader in biochemistry when I arrived in 1953, and Olaf Hougen, our chairman, was wise enough to bet scarce departmental funds on an area not yet recognized by the engineering profession.”