Chemical engineering and the postmodern world-[Prausnitz J M ]化学.pdf

Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 3627–3639 www.elsevier.nl/locate/ces Danckwerts Memorial Lecture Chemical engineering and the postmodern world J. M. Prausnitz ∗ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Received 7 November 2000 I am grateful to the Institution of Chemical Engineers chemical engineering, it has become fashionable to use for inviting me to present this year’s Danckwerts Lecture. an operational denition, that is, to say that chemical en- It is well known that a professor loves nothing more than gineering is what chemical engineers do. And what do an audience. I am keenly aware of the denition given by they do? At Berkeley, only a small fraction, perhaps 20% the British-American poet, Auden, who said that while of our recent graduates, go to work in the conventional many people talk in their sleep, a professor is someone chemical and petroleum industries. Most recent gradu- who talks in other people’s sleep. ates, especially those with advanced degrees, nd em- Regrettably, I never met Professor Danckwerts but ployment in industries that either did not exist 10 or 20 early in my career, I became familiar with his pioneering years ago, or did not, until recently, discover the useful- publications. Duri