Willis Harmon Ray (born April 4, 1940) is an American chemical engineer, control theorist, applied mathematician, and a Vilas Research emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison notable for being the 2000 winner of the prestigious Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award and the 2019 winner of the Neal Amundson Award. Education Harmon earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1963 from Rice University; and his PhD in chemical engineering in 1966 from the University of Minnesota, under supervision of Professor Rutherford Aris. Academic career Harmon served as faculty member at the department of chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo (1966–1970), State University of New York at Buffalo (1970–1976), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (after 1976). He retired and became an emeritus faculty member at the University of Wisconsin in 2003. During his tenure as a faculty member, Harmon supervised 53 PhD and 30 master's students. Research interests Mathematical modeling Control theory Process optimization Chemical reaction engineering Polymerization processes Awards Neal Amundson Award, ISCRE (2019) Gerhard Damkohler Medaille, DECHEMA/GVC, Germany (2006) DEng (honoris causa), University of Waterloo (2003) DSc (honoris causa), University of Minnesota (2001) Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, American Automatic Control Council (2000) Ray was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1991 for leadership in research and education in polymer reaction engineering, chemical reaction dynamics, process optimization, and automatic and control in industrial applications of significant importance. Education Award, American Automatic Control Council (1989) Professional Progress Award, AIChE (1982) Automatica Prize Paper Award, International Federation of Automatic Control (1981) Arthur K. Doolittle Award, Organics Coatings and Plastics Division of the American Chemical Society (1981) J. Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1973–74) Selected publications Lo, Dennis P. and W. H. Ray. "Kinetic Modeling and Prediction of Polymer Properties for Ethylene Polymerization over Nickel-Diimine Catalysts". I&EC Research, 44, 5932–5949 (2005). Wells, G. J. and W. H. Ray. "Mixing Effects on Performance and Stability of Low-density Polyethylene Reactors ". AIChE Journal, 51, 3205–3218, (2005). Banaszak, Brian, D. P. Lo, T. Widya, W. H. Ray, J. J. de Pablo, A. Novak, and Juraj Kosek, "Ethylene and 1-Hexene Sorption in LLDPE under Typical Gas Phase Reactor Conditions: A priori Simulation and Modeling for Prediction of Experimental Observations", Macromolecules, 37, 9139–9150 (2004). Zhang, M. and W. H. Ray. "Modeling of "Living" Free-Radical Polymerization Processes. I. Batch, Semi batch, and Continuous Tank Reactors". Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 86,