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GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING • VOL. 12 NO. 1 • WINTER 2004
After More Than 100 Years, the School Has a New Name By Ronald Rousseau School Chair The School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering has more than a century of history at Tech. In that time, it has had an active role in weaving the fabric of the Institute. Through the students it has graduated and the faculty members who have taught them, the School has contributed greatly to the growth of Tech, the Atlanta region, and the nation across which its progeny have spread.
We take pride in our discipline and think that in many respects it has provided the intellectual capital that built the world’s energy and chemical enterprises. The recent appreciation of the global nature of much of what we do is not surprising to many who have contributed to building those industries. In fact, today, only about half of all chemical engineering graduates in the U.S. are employed upon graduation by traditional chemical or energy industries. Diversification has not been
limited to the industrial sector. Georgia Tech chemical engineering faculty members, and those from other universities, have embraced research opportunities in materials, microelectronics, and biotechnology. They have done so because they bring exceptional skills and insights to these areas, and because these are fields where our students are likely to find their opportunities. With all these advances, however, it is rare to find those
from outside the discipline with an awareness of this breadth of activity. How many, for example, know that our School has the largest and best group working in the field of microelectronics among all the chemical engineering programs in the United States? How many recognize that the early entry of engineering into medicine was led by chemical engineers? How many know that nanotechnology inevitably Continued on page 3
IPST Officially Becomes Part of Georgia Tech Family Last year marked a significant number of changes for ChBE. First, the School moved into its new home, the Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building. That event was followed by its official name change, as detailed in the article above. However, those changes were not the only monumental events to occur. Georgia Tech and ChBE officially welcomed the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) into its family, thus further enhancing the breadth and depth of the School’s academic program and research opportunities. History of IPST Leaders of the pulp and paper industry founded the Institute
of Paper Chemistry (IPC) in 1929. Located in Appleton, Wisconsin, it flourished and became a major supplier of the technical leadership of the industry. As the industry evolved and its dominant source of pulpwood moved further south, IPC decided in the late 1980s to relocate to the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. The IPC Board of Directors clearly believed that the change in locale was not the only reason to make such a major transition; it had become more and more expensive to maintain a research organization at the cutting edge of science and technology, and technical advances had come to rely to a much greater extent
The Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) is located on the Georgia Tech Campus at 10th Street and Hemphill Avenue.
upon interchanges between scientists and engineers from various disciplines. The IPC leadership correctly predicted that being on the Tech campus would provide opportunities for
interactions that would have a profound impact on the direction of IPC’s research. And while at the business of change, Continued on page 8