Back when I was in college, there was a truism. Engineering programs were designed to make everyone fit in a square box- the original “we will make you equal” employer concept. Thankfully, that was true for all the disciplines except mine- Chemical Engineering.
And, back then, Chem E’s were a cross between chemists and engineers, they formed the “can do” team for the petrochemical complex. Which is why I had as many courses in business economics and finance as did most MBA programs of the time.
When I went to grad school, I was pretty surprised at one key fact. The arrogance of MIT. Most schools try to hire professors from around the world, to be able to inject new ideas into the program, to keep it fresh.
Not MIT. Nope. To a man (yes, this was in the early 1970s- engineering was a male bastion), my professors all were trained at MIT. Of course, MIT knew (yes, knew) there was no program in the world equal to theirs, so hiring their own graduates made eminent sense.
To be honest, I was pretty amazed at the quality of my professors. No- they weren’t touchy-feely. (White shirts and string ties were the costume for a good percentage of the faculty.) And, some of the profs were clearly veering off into new directions (the ones that I knew would be along the path I took), away from the petrochemical industry.
A little aside- Chem E is a relatively recent curriculum. Back in the 1920s (when the petrochemical industry was in its infancy), folks had specialties of industrial chemistry. It was in the late 1920s and early 1930s that Chemical Engineering became a teaching subject. (One of my professors- one of the world’s leading folks in combustion- only had a Master’s degree. Professor Hottel was the last of his kind.)
Over the past few months, a few of my professors have joined the great beyond. I will share some reminisces about them over the next few days.
The first one was Ray Baddour. Dr. Baddour failed to obtain his bachelors from MIT (he studied at Notre Dame), but corrected that error with his SM and ScD degrees. (Yes, MIT prefers to award SM and ScD for outstanding work, as opposed to MS and PhD’s.) After 7 years as a professor, Dr. Baddour started the Environmental Laboratory (1970), while head of the department (he reached this pinnacle after 6 years). He remained head of the department during my time there.
Back in the 1970s, the Chem E (Course 10) department was in a small, rectangular industrial building of two floors (Building 12). Dr. Baddour conceived of the new plan (and raised private funds to do so; a feat never duplicated at MIT to date)– Building 66, which afforded way more room and was of spectacular architecture. And, that plan extended the study of Chem E to biotechnology, environmental engineering, among other new avenues of study for the program.
Ray Baddour co-founded a small biotechnology firm in 1980. Amgen, the biopharmaceutical firm. Before that, he also was a non-Koch Brother founder of Abcor, Inc.- the membrane manufacturer that provided all the membrane purifiers we needed for our Cycle-Let program way back when. Ray was also a founder of some 9 other firms, including Amicon Corporation (now part of Millipore).
All these (and a slew more) of startups and directorships provided Dr. Baddour the wherewithal to endow the Raymond F. Baddour Professorship in Chemical Engineering.
That’s giving back.
There is still time to get in on the special deal I am offering those who buy my new book. You can get the particulars on the deal here.
It sounds like you had an interesting education, despite the lack of diversity of the MIT staff. Since you’ve graduated, have you noticed any change or are the MIT faculty still mainly MIT graduates?
P.S. Just the thought of majoring in chemical engineering breaks my brain. Is it mostly a field that is practiced in industrial settings?
I managed to learn a great deal from almost all of my teachers- wherever I was, even if I didn’t like them.
And, by the time I was teaching myself, the MIT Chem E program was taking the best professorial choices from around the world. (I should have mentioned that was another of Ray Baddour’s concepts- part of the Building 66 changes.)
Chemical Engineering involves both chemistry and engineering. Traditionally, the graduates worked in the petrochemical industry. Then, the pharmaceutical industry opened up, plus all of biotechnology (stem cells, microbes, medical), water treatment, air purification, solid waste handling and reduction- as you can see, especially if you had the finance/business course background I did (which opened up high finance and business management), almost anything is in our bailiwick.
What an esteemed and accomplished gentleman. And that’s some resume!
Yes, Trish, Ray was a pretty cool guy. And, one of the first ChemE’s I met that wasn’t wedded to the fact that we had to work in the petrochemical industries.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.
I’ve only been on the MIT campus once (sometime in April of 2005). I am not sure I remember that building – what struck me was how “industrial” the campus looked – not at all like so many colleges do. Yet, when my husband, son and I visited the museum there, it was absolutely fascinating. I never would have made it to a college such as MIT. I am in awe of people who make it there, and who work to make our world a better place (hopefully).
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So, I thought a lot of those buildings were beautiful. No, not Building 10. But, they were all designed to let folks effect the experiments and designs to create awesome things.
One of the newer things going on at MIT is the Media Lab. It did not exist when I was there- and the name is confusing to those who don’t know it’s mission. It has nothing to do news. Plenty to do with the intersection of art, engineering, science, economics, and politics- to make this world a much better place. As you said.
WOW, I love the design of Building 66! Dr. Baddour is a very intelligent person!
It is, indeed, a most intriguing building, Martha.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.
My son would love to be able to study at MIT someday in the future (he is in high school now). He truly loves engineering , but he is not too fond of chemistry at this time (sorry Roy, and my dad is also a chemical engineer!).
Am enjoying this series of yours and learning not just about those learned people you are featuring but also the other facts you pepper your posts with.
Glad you find those other facts of interest, Vidya. MIT is a great place (and high pressure) as is Caltech.