Bill Schowalter inaugurates BSL Lecture

It is fitting that the inaugural BSL Lecture would be presented by someone who is not only a distinguished chemical engineer, but a long-time friend of the three honorees and of the department as well. William R. Schowalter's ties to the department go back even earlier than the 1951 BS degree he earned here and the years he spent as a student in the old chemical engineering building on Park Street. Bill's uncle, Otto Kowalke, joined the UW Department of Chemical Engineering in 1907, having graduated in the last class in Applied Electrochemistry at the university before the program was incorporated into the new chemical engineering curriculum. Otto became chairman of the department in 1913 and led the department in that capacity for the next 35 years.

For his part, Bill Schowalter went on to receive his PhD in from the University of Illinois. He then joined Princeton University, where he became chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1978. In 1989, Bill returned to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to become dean of engineering until his retirement in 2001. His many honors include membership in the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Bill referred to the material presented in Transport Phenomena in the title of his talk, "The Equations (of Change) Don't Change, but the Profession of Engineering Does." He offered some fascinating insights into the changing nature of education in engineering, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.