Professor Jerry Lin receives Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Conference on Inorganic Membranes

Jerry Lin, a Regents’ professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University, has received one of the highest honors in the field of inorganic membranes: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Conference on Inorganic Membranes, or ICIM. Presented during the 18th ICIM in Montpellier, France, the award recognizes Lin’s pioneering contributions, decades of leadership and lasting impact on the international inorganic membrane community.

Held every two years since 1989, ICIM is the premier global conference dedicated to inorganic membrane research. This year’s conference returned to Montpellier, France, the site of the inaugural meeting.

A lifetime of achievement

When the conference was first held in 1989, Lin attended as a postdoctoral researcher entering a field that was still in its early stages. Since then, he has attended every ICIM conference, served as chair of the 2004 ICIM in Cincinnati and helped shape the evolution of the field over nearly four decades. 

Over the course of the conference’s 18 meetings, Lin has been invited to deliver six plenary lectures, including this year’s presentation on zeolite membranes for molecular separations, energy storage applications and membrane reactors. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes not only his pioneering contributions to the field, but also his dedication and longstanding commitment to the international inorganic membrane community. 

His contributions include authoring more than 400 publications that have advanced the fundamental understanding and practical applications of inorganic membranes, helping shape the direction of research in the field. 

Throughout his career, Lin has contributed to nearly every major area of inorganic membrane research. Among these contributions, he considers his work on synthesis-structure-property relationships for mixed-conducting ceramic and zeolite membranes to be the most transformative to the field. His research has helped scientists better understand how membrane composition and structure influence separation performance, paving the way for more efficient membrane technologies.

“I am particularly proud of my research on mixed-conducting inorganic membranes for the transport of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, as well as zeolite membranes for molecular separation and membrane reactor applications,” Lin says. 

These research efforts have expanded the practical applications of inorganic membranes, including membrane reactors that combine chemical reaction and separation into a single process. Such technologies have the potential to improve efficiency, reduce energy consumption and support cleaner manufacturing.

Beyond his laboratory, Lin has been instrumental in advancing the commercial application of ceramic membrane filtration processes for purification of refinery oil streams, demonstrating how membrane science can improve industrial processes and produce value-enhanced products. Looking ahead, he sees inorganic membranes playing an increasingly important role in addressing global challenges. 

“Inorganic membranes can help address several real-world issues, including the efficient capture of carbon dioxide to mitigate global warming, process intensification to improve industrial efficiency and the emerging challenge of critical mineral separation,” Lin says. 

Having witnessed many years of advances in inorganic membrane research, Lin has seen the field move towards technologies designed for practical industrial use. 

“The field has evolved toward the development of dense and sub-nanometer-pore membranes for molecular separations, while also focusing on scaling up production and reducing the costs for industrial applications,” Lin says. 

The future of inorganic membranes

Though the award recognizes decades of achievement, Lin continues to advance the field through research that addresses today’s pressing energy and sustainability challenges.

 At ASU, Lin’s research group is currently investigating ion transport in microporous membranes, metal-organic and coordination framework membranes for molecular separations, and membrane reactors for the conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol. 

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and TMSC, these projects aim to improve the efficiency of next-generation membrane technologies. 

During his most recent plenary lecture at ICIM, Lin highlighted recent advances in zeolite membranes, which are highly porous materials that selectively separate molecules based on their chemical properties and size. He discussed their potential for gas and liquid separations, membrane reactors and energy storage applications.

“Zeolite membranes offer unique separation capabilities and excellent stability,” Lin says. “To further advance the field of inorganic membranes and accelerate industrial adoption, the research community should focus on addressing the critical challenges that hinder the application of zeolite membranes.” 

A career built on collaboration 

Beyond his research, Lin has shaped the community through decades of professional leadership and mentorship. He has mentored more than 70 doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers throughout his career, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in academia and industry, advancing inorganic research efforts worldwide. 

Lin has also served the inorganic membrane community through leadership roles, including as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Membrane Science, the flagship journal in the field. 

For Lin, the Lifetime Achievement Award is especially meaningful because it comes from colleagues who have witnessed the evolution of his work over the decades. 

“This is one of the most significant awards, because it comes from researchers in your field,” Lin says. “In academia, it is your peers who truly understand and evaluate your work, so receiving this award reflects the quality, originality and impact of my contributions to the field.” 

Lin credits much of his success to those who helped shape his career. He dedicated the award to the memory of his late doctoral and postdoctoral advisors, Ed Ma and Ton Burggraaf, who introduced him to the field of inorganic membranes. He also expressed his gratitude to the students and postdoctoral researchers whose contributions have helped drive the research produced in his lab.