NL Chemical CEO receives China's highest honor
When Norman N. Li left mainland China to go to Taiwan after World War II, he didn't think he would one day receive China's highest honor for scientists. But he did - more than 60 years later.
The Arlington Heights resident recently received China's prestigious 2014 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award from the government of China. It is the country's highest prize for foreign experts and the Shanghai-born Li was honored as an American scientist. At 82, he also remains busy with U.S. and Chinese delegations to organize conferences that help engineering and science students.
"I like to see these two countries, two great countries, cooperate in areas of science and technology," Li said.
Li, founder and CEO of Mount Prospect-based NL Chemical Technology Inc., a water treatment company, attended a ceremony in China that also honored seven others from around the world. Li has been a longtime chemical engineer and scientist specializing in clean water membrane technology. He has published 20 books, more than 100 papers and garnered 50 U.S. patents.
Li's career began after he left China for Taiwan after World War II. He went to National Taiwan University for his bachelor's of science degree in chemical engineering. After his graduation, he came to the United States for his graduate education, also in chemical engineering, in 1955. He later worked at UOP as its director of research and at Honeywell in Des Plaines. He founded NL Chemical Technologies after taking an early retirement from Honeywell in 1995.
For many years, Norman Li has been involved in a U.S.-China conference for science and engineering students. The Sino-U.S. Joint Conference of Chemical Engineering will be held in Shanghai this October. He organizes the U.S. delegation, while the Chinese arrange all the logistics as host, he said.
"My job is much easier," he joked.
He loves to be involved in arranging the massive, international conference attended by about 500 students, guests and lecturers. And he enjoys seeing many students get excited about meeting scientists and authors, especially if they have studied their work, he said.
But when he isn't working on such conferences, he continues his mission to help create clean water in many parts of the world still without drinkable water, he said.
"Twenty years ago, you could go to the Beijing train station and you could not drink from the faucet. The water was not clean enough," Li said. "But it is OK now. And this is a station that sees 20,000 passengers waiting for trains all the time. It needs clean water."
He said he will continue his work with his research-and-development team to make contributions to this field and will continue to work with both countries and with their students to pass on that knowledge.
Looking back, Li often said that he is grateful for the opportunity of receiving graduate education and working in industry in the United States. He often feels the "amazing grace" of God, he said, and feels blessed with a wife and two children, including son David Li, who is CEO of Cabot Microelectonics in Chicago.
"I have been greatly honored," he said.
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