Peter Wayner Jr., a professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, recently won the 2020 Max Jakob Memorial Award. This award — given in memory of Max Jakob, a pioneer in heat transmission research — recognizes “eminent achievement of distinguished service in the area of heat transfer.” It’s given jointly by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Wayner received this honor for his transformative research on contact lines and contact line dynamics, particularly in association with evaporation and condensation.

“His concepts changed the way people think about these processes and the importance of the intermolecular force of attraction and capillary forces responsible for governing the interaction between vapor, liquid, and solid phases,” said Joel Plawsky, the head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer. “His worked paved the way for all manner of surface modification techniques now used to enhance heat and mass transfer.”