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Famous Chemical and Material Engineers
An industrial Alkali inspector from Manchester England. In 1880, he proposed the "Society of Chemical Engineers in England" unsuccessfully. In 1901, Davis published the "Handbook of Chemical Engineering", which was a success. The handbook was based on a series of lectures delivered at UMIST. A second edition was printed in 1904. Davis was the man responsible for applying the term "Chemical Engineering" to the new profession, and in many ways defined the modern chemical engineering profession.
Professor Man Mohan Sharma , FRS, Padma Bhushan(1987), Padma Vibhushan(2001). First Engineer from India to be elected FRS(London), in 1990. More Info.
Professor Peter Victor Danckwerts G.C., M.B.E., F.R.S, F.Eng.,(1916-1984)
Probably the only chemical engineer listed in the Guiness Book of Records (Please let j.chen@auckland.ac.nz know if you are aware of any other). Professor Danckwerts was Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University (1959-1977), and fellow of Pembroke College. He was listed under "Versatility" in the Guiness Book of Record as the only George Cross holder who was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London(FRS). As a sub-lieutenant RNVR he defused 16 parachute mines in under 48 hours in the London docks during the Battle of Britain in August 1940. Incidentally, Peter Victor Danckwerts was the PhD supervisor of Man Mohan Sharma. More Info.
Dr Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, FRS
Padma Bhushan, Third Indian Engineer and 36th Indian Scientist to be elected FRS(London). Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India, and Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research(DSIR), Government of India.
George Maxwell Richards BSc(Eng) in Chem Eng. PhD in Chem Eng(Cambridge)
President of Trinidad and Tobago. 5-year term from 17/3/03
Richard Hu was Singapore's former Minister for Finance from 1985 until his retirement in 2001. He is currently the Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) Real Estate Pte Ltd, the real estate investment arm of GIC, as well as Chancellor of the Singapore Management University. His signature appears on the Singapore currency. PhD in Chem Eng(Birmingham)
Andy Grove, CEO, Intel
Bob Gore, inventor of the GORE-TEX fabric
Consultant and co-founder, with William Walker, of "Little and Walker" which later became "Arthur D. Little, Inc." He coined the term "unit operations" in 1915 and headed up AIChE's Committee on Chemical Engineering Education which enphasized the "unit operation" concept along with accreditation to standardize courses in chemical engineering programs.
Former Chairman & CEO, General Electric Co. (The eighth Chairman and CEO in the Company's history.) He received his engineering undergraduate degree in his home-state at the University of Massachusetts. After he earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, he accepted a job offer from General Electric. The rest is history -- he became chairman and CEO of General Electric in 1981.
Leader of the former Soviet Union, metallurgical engineer.
31st President of the United States, Mining engineer, metallurgist
Member of team America3, winner of the Americas Cup in 1992, a chemical engineer too.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1863. He immigrated to the United States in 1889. His first major invention was Velox, a photographic printing paper that could be developed under artificial light. Baekeland sold the rights Velox to George Eastman and Kodak for for one million dollars in 1899. He then started his own laboratory in Yonkers, New York, where he invented Bakelite in 1907, a synthetic substitute for the shellac used in electronic insulation.ref1 ref2. Honorary Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, 1899 to 1916 and President of the Chemical Engineering Society in 1912
(1903-1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions in quantum physics, set theory, computer science, economics and virtually all mathematical fields.
He simultaneously did an undergraduate degree in Chemical engineering at ETH Zurich at the same time as completing a PhD from Budapest. His (signed) 4th year undergraduate Chem Engr project is still in the chemistry library in Zurich, complete with samples of cloth that he was trying to dye different colours.