Letter dated 29th January, 1945.

War still on.

… practical action at no distant date …

… new School of Chemical Engineering …

… inaugurated … next October.

Immediate protagonists

John Oriel of Shell, Professor R.G.W. Norrish

… Norrish alleged that the whole scheme was cooked up between him and Oriel in London pubs during the blackout. To anyone who knew them, the milieu seems entirely credible.

From The Cambridge Review, Feb. 1983, by P.V. Danckwerts.

1945 2008 (equivalent)

Capital £435,000 £50m

Studentships £2,500 p.a.

until further notice

£300,000 p.a.

T.R.C. Fox. Shell Professor 1946-1978

Innovations:

1. Chemical Engineering Syndicate… one of those rich anomalies which flourish in Cambridge to the despair of the Administrators. (P.V.D.)

2. 4 year course.

3. Tripos research projects. No large teaching equipment.

4. Basic Science applied to chemical engineering.

5. Staff with a range of backgrounds: chemistry, engineering, mathematics.

4 year course started 1948

2 yearsNatural Sciences Tripos

Part I

2 yearsMechanical Sciences Tripos

Part I

Year 3Qualifying ExaminationChemical Engineering

Year 4Chemical Engineering

Tripos6 Papers

4 year course gave MEng after 1989.MEng available in retrospect to those who took the 4 year course before 1989.Cost £6 or £0.

1. First computer, 1960

2. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 1980s

No large equipment for teaching.

Fund of £50,000 invested.

Subsequently helped with:

Research projects part of Tripos course from 1950 onwards, e.g.:

1. Chlorella: early biotechnology, 1952-3

2. Fluidisation, started 1957-8

4 year Tripos Course 1948

Basic science applied to chemical engineering

Chemical Thermodynamics

Fluid Mechanics

Reaction Engineering

Foreshadowed ‘ Transport Processes’ by Bird, Stewart & Lightfoot, 1960

Staff appointments

Knowledge of chemical engineering not essential

1948 Denbigh Edinburgh. Imperial College. Queen Elizabeth College, London

Sellers Swansea. Humphreys & Glasgow

Danckwerts UKAEA. Imperial College

Kay UKAEA. Imperial College

1951 Gray Leeds. Gonville & Caius

1952 Armstrong

Davidson

1955 Hutchison

Davies Birmingham

Turner Exeter

1956 Ratcliff McGill

Harrison Keele. Exeter. Selwyn

1957 Wilkes Ann Arbor

Research 1948-1959

Fox: no publications but encouraged research.

3. Gas absorption, mixing, residence times. Danckwerts.

4. Fluidisation. Started from teaching experiment of J.M. Kay and 2 Tripos projects.

1. Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell. F.T. Bacon.

CEGB funded for energy storage.

Larger unit at Marshall’s Airport.

Unit for Apollo project to the moon, developed by Pratt & Whitney in USA.

2. Distillation of liquid hydrogen for HD separation. Sellers, Augood, Ashmead.

Tea breaks (after J.J. Thomson)

Togetherness.

Staff meet each other and meet research students.

Everyone exchanges ideas about science and engineering.

Autobiographical NoteBy P.V. Danckwerts

I cannot claim that I was particularly diligent in my first two years, either, so that in my third year it was necessary to do some serious work.

I did rather well in my examinations, a result which I believe gave my tutor the idea that something was wrong with the system.

During the years 1948-54, although there was plenty of teaching to be done, I sat on no committees and supervised only one graduate student. I look back on this as my period of “academic indolence”, during which I had time to shove my feet up on the desk and actually think. Such “insights” as I have experience originated mainly in this period, stimulated by summer visits to chemical plants. Alas, indolence is no longer in fashion in universities.

Gas-Liquid ReactionsPublished 1970, McGraw-Hill

P.V. Danckwerts GCShell Professor 1959-1977

1. Established good links with IChemE – President 1965-6Design Project included in Tripos Course.

2. Fluid Mechanics and Transport Processes course in Part IB Natural Sciences Tripos 1967. Parts I and II Chemical Engineering Tripos.

3. Computer IBM 1620. Early 1960s.

4. Editor Chemical Engineering Science.

Peter Danckwerts

Research Activities

1. Diffusion with and without chemical reaction, 7 papers

2. Gas Absorption and the Design of Absorbers, 17 papers

3. Reactions of Carbon Dioxide with Bases and Catalysts in Aqueous Solution, 6 papers

4. Mixing, 6 papers

5. Residence Time Distributions and Related Topics, 6 papers. The central idea…came to me during a tea-break at Cambridge.