Rudd's strategies have been used in areas such as waste treatment, chemical production and food processing.
University of California Provost C. Judson King called Rudd's work “truly pioneering and important”.
[3][6] Rudd co-wrote with Charles C. Watson "Strategy of Process Engineering" (1968, John Wiley & Sons; Spanish Edition 1976), the first textbook in the field.
His other textbooks include "Process Synthesis" with Gary Powers and Jeffrey Siirola (1974 Prentice-Hall), "Strategy of Pollution Control" with P. Mac Berthouex (1977, Wiley; Russian Edition 1980, Chinese Edition 1985), "Petrochemical Technology Assessment" with Fathi-Afshar, Trevino and Stadtherr (1981, Wiley), "Impact of Future Catalytic Developments on the Chemical Industry" with Dumesic and Trevino (1985, Catalytica Associates) and "The Microkinetics of Heterogeneous Catalysis" with Dumesic, Aparicio, Rekoske and Trevino (1993, American Chemical Society).
[9] Rudd's awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970, an Outstanding Educator in America in 1975, election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1978 and election to the founding class of the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2008.