Gast, Alice P.

From Lehigh Engineering Heritage Initiative

**Alice P. Gast**
Alice P. Gast, 13th President of Lehigh University
Birth:	May 1958
Birthplace:	Houston, TX
Department:	President
Dates:	2006-present
Notable Achievement:	A world-renowned scholar and the 13th President of Lehigh University

Alice P. Gast is the 13th--and first female--President of Lehigh University. Before coming to Lehigh, Gast served at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the vice president for research and associate provost and held the Robert T. Haslam chair in chemical engineering. Prior to moving to MIT in 2001, she spent 16 years as a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Gast holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California, where she was the valedictorian of her graduating class.

Gast also holds a master's degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Princeton University. After earning her Ph.D., Gast spent a postdoctoral year on a NATO fellowship at the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris.

In recognition of her achievements, Gast has garnered numerous awards and honors including the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiative in Research, the Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. She was named AAAS Fellow in early 2007.

In October, 2008, Gast was one of 100 "Modern Era" chemical engineers recognized by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (in honor of its centennial celebration) as having helped to shape the profession of chemical engineering since WWII. Gast is being honored not only for her work in colloid and surface phenomena, but for her leadership both at Lehigh and MIT.