Notes from the chair

Departmental Research Expenditures Departmental research expenditures for fiscal year 2003 increased by more than 21% over our previous high in 2001, topping $10 million for the first time in department history. Over $7 million of this funding came from federal grants. Departmental expenditures for instruction totaled just over $3 million in 2003, primarily from state appropriations and student fees. Our complete annual report is available at: www.engr.wisc.edu/che under "related links."

Thomas F. Kuech, Chair (14K JPG)

As I begin my three-year stint as department chair — a period that will include the centennial celebration of the founding in 1905 of this great department — and as I look back on the accomplishments of past chairs, I am keenly aware of the tradition of excellence I have been asked to uphold. Not to worry, however — it's nothing that a good antacid can't control.

Seriously, I would like to thank Jim Rawlings for his dedication and hard work as chair over the past three years. In particular, his successful effort to incorporate the biological sciences into the department's name helps to set the direction of the department as we head into our second century. Departmental priorities for the coming years remain unchanged: to continue to recruit outstanding faculty, students and staff; to continue to build our infrastructure to accommodate cutting-edge research and first-rate instruction; and to build the financial resources, in an age of softening state support, to assure that the department maintains its leadership role in service to the profession and to society.

In the mid-1960's, Sir Bob Bird (see "Just call him Sir Bob" for an explanation of the "Sir"), then the lowly chair of the department, worked with alumnus Jim Mathis (MS '51, PhD '53) and many others to establish the Olaf A. Hougen Professorship Fund. The fund was to serve as a tribute to a great educator and chemical engineer by allowing the department to invite members of the profession to visit the department for extended stays to teach, collaborate on research, and prepare "a lasting contribution to the profession in the form of a review article, research monograph, film, experimental technique, or by other appropriate means." Thanks to the outstanding generosity of our alumni and friends over many years, the Hougen Fund has not only met this goal, it has outgrown it. Mike Graham, as chair of our Hougen Professorship committee, has taken the lead in identifying additional uses for the fund that are consistent with Olaf Hougen's firmly held belief that major research departments have an obligation to provide leadership to their professions through activities that strengthen the crucial link between the generation and dissemination of new knowledge.

In this issue, you can read about these new Hougen Fund initiatives, including the Hougen Scholars Program, intended to allow members of the profession to devote time specifically to the development of educational materials. Under this program, John Yin worked last spring on developing materials related to the biological sciences for inclusion in the traditional chemical engineering curriculum. This spring, we look forward to welcoming Jay Schieber (PhD '89) back to Madison as a Hougen Scholar to work with Juan de Pablo on a new textbook on thermodynamics. This fall we held our first annual Olaf Hougen Symposium on the topic of "Advances in Fuel Cell Science and Technology." We look forward as well to collaborating with this spring's Hougen Visiting Professor, Eric Shaqfeh, from the Departments of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. The Hougen Fund now allows us to serve the profession in new and diverse ways, while maintaining the high profile that Olaf Hougen helped to build for this department. The fund itself serves as a most fitting memorial to a giant in the profession.

A year and a half ago, we announced the establishment of the Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot (or BSL) Graduate Fellowship Fund to pay tribute to three other giants in the profession, Bob Bird, Warren Stewart and Ed Lightfoot. Many of you have already responded generously to our request for contributions to this fund. We have high hopes that BSL will become the next Hougen Fund: a fund that significantly promotes the vitality of the department while helping us to better serve the profession and society.

The fund will promote our efforts to attract top graduate students to the department, assuring the continued high quality of our research output while strengthening faculty recruiting and our instructional program at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. With your continuing help, we hope to pay a special centennial tribute to three of the leading figures in the history of this department by building this fund into a major endowment to help the department continue its leadership role into its second hundred years and beyond.

We also hope to unveil Bob Bird's long-awaited history of the department in time for the 2005 centennial celebration. Bob offers up a few tidbits from a period in our history that few of us remember (see "FAQs about the first 50 years"). And one final note for now on the subject of the centennial: please contact me with your ideas for other fun and engaging ways to celebrate!

Thomas F. Kuech
2020 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1691
Phone: 608/262-1092
Fax: 608/5434
E-mail: che@che.wisc.edu