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Chemical Engineering News
by Arup Chakraborty, Chair

Combining Excellence with Access

The beginning of the fall semester is always full of excitement, as it signals a new academic year with students returning to Berkeley after the summer and new students arriving in Berkeley for the first time. This year 85 freshmen, 27 transfer students and 3 double majors enrolled in our undergraduate program. As a result of our unprecedented successes at recruiting the nations best graduate students in the past two years, our graduate student body is larger than it has been in the preceding fifteen years. To maintain the quality of the graduate program, particularly the research component, it was imperative to have a small entering class of graduate students. Therefore, we offered admission to very few students, and ten new graduate students have enrolled this fall.

The fiscal crisis in the state of California has impacted the universitys budget. Due to the hard work of the faculty and the campus administration, and most importantly, your support, I believe that the academic functions of the department have not been compromised. Given the political and economic uncertainties, we are counting on your help and support in order to maintain the unique way in which Berkeley combines academic excellence with public access.

Jud King Retiring
After 40 years of service as a teacher, researcher, and administrator, C. Judson King formally retired from his position as System-wide Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs, of the University of California. He will carry on his duties in the Office of the President, however, until the search for a new Provost is completed. Jud plans to spend half his time thinking about ways in which society can benefit from research in separation processes. The other half of his time is committed to being the director of Berkeleys Center for the Study of Higher Education. The department has missed Jud in many ways while he served us all by helping to steer the UC system, and we are looking forward to Juds return to Gilman Hall.

Faculty Recruiting
We are continuing to recruit new faculty. We are currently recruiting for the Hubbard Howe Professorship in Biochemical Engineering, and we hope to complete this process within the academic year. We will also commence a search for a junior faculty member. As usual, we will look for outstanding people regardless of research area. However, due to student interests and the composition of our current faculty, candidates whose research interests focus on computational biology or electrochemical systems will be preferred.

Offering a Master of Engineering
The department is going to try a new experiment with our undergraduate program. In fall 2004, we plan to start a Master of Engineering program that will be open only to our own undergraduates. After completion of the requirements for a B.S. degree, students could enroll in this new M.E. program in order to strengthen their knowledge about a specific corporate sector (e.g., microelectronics, biochemical engineering). The one-year program will involve course work focused on the specific area of interest, and co-op experience in a pertinent company. Please let us know what you think about the planned M.E. program. Your thoughts will help us shape and evolve this new program.

Faculty and Department News
Members of the faculty continue to excel at research and teaching. Since I wrote my last column four months ago, several colleagues have been recognized for their research accomplishments. Douglas Clark has won three major awards in biochemical engineering this year (the Amgen Award, the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Division Award of the AIChE, and the Enzyme Engineering Award). Enrique Iglesia has won the Wilhelm Award of the AIChE for accomplishments in reaction engineering. Alex Katz won the Hellman Family Fund Award for his work on nano-imprinted materials. Jay Keasling has developed a promising new process for the manufacture of drugs that can treat malaria. Jay's work in this area was highlighted in the local newspapers as well as the New York Times.

In addition, our department was recently featured in Chemical Engineering Education Check it out. It has some nice tidbits of history that you may find interesting.

The annual AIChE meeting is in San Francisco this November. We held a popular reception on Tuesday evening and always enjoy a visit from our alumni to the department anytime.

Related Sites

Chemical Engineering Education