A Departmental History of:
Chemical Engineering at The University of Akron:

An account as told by Dr. Robert W. Roberts

Dr. Robert W. Roberts was one of the founding members of the Chemical Engineering Department at The University of Akron. Dr. Roberts worked to organize the original Chemical Engineering curriculum at the University and served as chair of the Chemical Engineering department from 1969 - 1977. Dr. Roberts retired from the University of Akron, as the Iredell Professor, in December of 1988. Since then Dr. Roberts has spent some of his free time writing a history of our Chemical Engineering Department. When he came to the October 17th, 2005 AIChE meeting as a guest speaker Dr. Roberts agreed to let us post a very preliminary version of his departmental history online. The links below are the beginning stages of a History of Chemical Engineering at The University of Akron, as written by one of the men who worked to start it all.

When Dr. Roberts is not off traveling the world (he has visited over 120 countries) he spends some of his time in his Whitby Hall office where he works on his book. Dr. Roberts has said several times that he is always happy to talk to students about engineering, about the good old days, or about anything they would like. His e-mail address is rwr@uakron.edu. Feel free to stop by or drop him a line.

A Departmental History of
Chemical Engineering at The University of Akron
Project By: Dr. R.W. Roberts
rwr@uakron.edu

This is an early version of an ongoing project.

 

1.  Preface

2.  Getting the Engine Started

3.  Refining the Process

4.  Getting It Write