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The recipient of the 2005 award is Professor Donald R. Paul. He is the Director of the Texas Materials Institute and holds the Ernest Cockrell Senior Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Paul is recognized for his research and leadership in major areas of Polymer Science and Engineering. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineers. He has received many awards from the Society of Plastics Engineers, including the Education Award and the International Award. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society PMSE division, a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and was also elected fellow of the Society of Plastic Engineers. He has been cited more than 20,000 times by Science Citation Index for his timely and noteworthy research, and has been listed in the top 200 of the 1000 most cited chemists over the last 20 years.

Professor Paul's research has focused on broad areas of polymer science and engineering, including polymer blends, membranes for gas separation, permeability aspects in general, and polymer processing. The blends research has led to numerous publications and several books and book chapters dealing with the fundamentals and dynamics of polymer-polymer interactions, the use of reactive compatibilizers in multiphase systems, such as ASB, control of phase morphology during processing by both physical and chemical means, and in the recently emphasized area of polymer nanocomposites involving highly exfoliated clay systems. His fundamental work on diffusion has led to improved materials, while his basic work on nanocomposites has been directed toward processing strategies for exfoliating layered silicates in polymer matrices, and related nanocomposites.

He has been very active in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as in the American Chemical Society. He has been an active founding member of the North American Membrane Society, and has served on several important committees of the National Academy of Engineering. He has also been part of many National Research Council committees, advising the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation. He is the Editor of Industrial Engineering Chemistry. He has been on the editorial board of Journal of Membrane Science, Polymer Engineering and Science, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Journal of Polymer Science: Physics, and Polymer. He has contributed to many books, both as an editor and as editor of proceedings/journals, and has published more than 500 refereed papers.

The Herman F. Mark award was established in 1976 and is administered and sponsored by the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division. The award's purpose is to recognize outstanding research and leadership in polymer science. The award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $2000. The award is usually presented biennially in odd-numbered years. The recipient is expected to present an address at a symposium organized in his/her honor. Reasonable travel expenses to the symposium are paid in addition to the honorarium. The 2005 award will be presented at the Fall meeting of the American Chemical Society Polymer Chemistry Division.