Stories for May 6, 1998: Honoring Savio and Free Speech 1998 Commencement Does Academic Duty Exist? Berkeley Administration Initiatives: Implementation Starts January 1999 Archeology goes high-tech Farewell to Berkeleyan Editor Fran Marsh San Bruno's Rare Butterflies Undergraduate Scientific Journal Wins Award of Excellence Researchers' Video Helps Injured Workers Helping Russians Develop Ombuds Offices Cal Doctor Treats the "Other" Nagano Athletes Celebrating 50 Years of Chemical Engineering Eugene Wong Named to NSF Post Kos to Coordinate BAI Training Program Special Enrollment May 4-22 for Domestic Partners, Dependent Adults Interviewing the Interviewer Rx for Ailing Roofs and Aging Pipes Preserving UC's Past Berkeley Retirement Center Honors Kragen Photographs Reveal Lost Cemetary Regular Features: News Briefs Obituaries More About...		Celebrating 50 Years of Chemical Engineering by Greg Butera, College of Chemistry posted May. 6, 1998 The Department of Chemical Engineering celebrated its 50th anniversary April 22 at the Faculty Club with a gathering of alumni, retired and current faculty and staff and students. Chair Harvey Blanch introduced speakers from different eras of chemical engineering at Berkeley, who shared their perspectives about the early years, the special relationship with chemistry at Berkeley, the changing nature of research, and the future of chemical engineering. Speakers included prof. emeritus Charles Wilke, the first department chair; prof. John Prausnitz, who joined the department in 1955; and former chairs Alexis T. Bell, now dean of the College of Chemistry, and C. Judson King, now vice president and provost of UC systemwide. Chemical engineering was taught at Berkeley as applied chemistry in the early years and dubbed “chemical technology” as early as 1912. In 1942, an interdepartmental program in chemical engineering was developed between the Colleges of Engineering and Chemistry, but chemical engineering was formally installed in Chemistry in 1945. The PhD program was approved in 1947, and the BS degree was established in 1948. Chemical engineering became a separate department in 1957. Its close ties with chemistry have put the chemical engineering department at the forefront of research in new materials, semiconductors, catalysis, separations, and biotechnology. Berkeley was recently ranked second in the United States in chemical engineering according to U.S. News & World Report, and ranked third by the National Research Council Survey in 1995. [ Back to top ]

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