A SURVEY OF COURSES, TEXTS, AND CURRICULA
IN INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY
J. P. Ferraris and L. A. Melton*
Department of Chemistry
University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, TX 75083-0688
ABSTRACT
In an attempt to bring together resources for teaching
of Industrial Chemistry courses at the undergraduate and
graduate levels, this presentation summarizes the results of
a thorough (but probably not exhaustive) survey of U.S.
colleges and universities. College and university chemistry
departments at which there is an emphasis sufficient to
generate at least one course in "Industrial Chemistry"
will
be identified and the relation of the course to their
chemistry curricula and mission will be discussed. Faculty
members who are willing to consult with other chemistry
faculty who may be considering an increase in the
"Industrial Chemistry" elements of the curriculum will
also
be identified.
* Contact: L. A. Melton
(972) 883-2913
melton@utdallas.edu
Paper prepared for presentation in the Industrial and
Engineering Chemistry Division Symposium on Education for
Industry, ACS National Meeting, Orlando, FL, August 24-29,
1996
This paper contains information on Industrial Chemistry
courses, texts, and curricula which were obtained from
responses to a short letter in C&EN (July 1, 1996), a request
to the CHEMED-L email list, and personal contacts. It is
usefully broad, but it cannot be complete. Persons with
knowledge which might assist in identifying other Industrial
Chemistry resources are requested to contact the authors.
The useful bulk of the paper is in Tables 1-3. Table 1
lists all the Industrial Chemistry courses/programs known to
the authors, information describing the courses/programs,
and where possible, the name and address for a contact.
Table 2 lists books, texts, and other Industrial Chemistry
information materials and sources. It was provided by
Professor Philip J. Chenier (University of Wisconsin-Eau
Claire). It is a wonderful resource, and we gratefully
acknowledge his important contribution in allowing us to
include it. Table 3 contains information supplementary to
that in Table 2.
There are at least the following types of Industrial
Chemistry courses:
(1) "Chemical Industry", offered to non chemists, a
study
of the economic and technical strategies of chemical
industry;
(2) "Industrial Chemistry", offered to chemists (and
sometimes chemical engineers) for the purpose of
informing these students about industrial processes and
strategies in their career field;
(3) "Industrial Chemistry" (aka "Engineering
Chemistry"),
offered to chemists for the purpose of teaching them
the basics of commodities, patents, scaleup and
chemical engineering;
(4) "Careers in Chemistry", offered to chemists in
order to
make them aware of the variety of non-academic careers
which use chemistry;
(5) "Medicinal Chemistry", offered to chemists,
biochemists, and biologists to teach them about
realistic drug discovery and development processes;
(6) "Industrial Chemistry for people already in
industry",
offered as intensive short courses generally for non-
chemists or newly-hired chemists;
(7) "Industrial Chemistry for Industrial Hygiene",
offered
to inform students in Industrial Hygiene programs about
the operation of chemical plants so that they may
address safety/health issues in their professional
employment.
(8) "Industrial Chemistry", offered to secondary school
students.
Almost all of the Industrial Chemistry courses/programs
in the U.S. depend upon the school having access to someone
who has significant prior industrial experience. Very few
young faculty candidates claim such experience, and hence 3
the faculty for the industrial chemistry courses are often
retirees from industry or practicing industrial scientists
in the local area. As a result, many of these
course/programs thrive or wane as a result of the
enthusiasm, talent, and availability of a sharply limited
group of people. In some cases, the regular faculty have
little enthusiasm for the industrial focus; in other cases,
they support such a focus but find that their "industrial
chemistry resource" retires (completely, this time), moves
away, or otherwise becomes unavailable. As a result, few
industrial chemistry courses/programs are truly stable.
Professor Philip Chenier of the University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire provided Table 2, the names of several
possible colleges, perspective and encouragement. Madeleine
Jacobs, the editor of C&EN, agreed to publish a short
letter, and it brought 90% of the college contacts. Dr.
Wally Schultz, Chair of the I&EC Program Committee, provided
a forum and encouragement.
Of course we did; there is no way to find all the
Industrial Chemistry courses/programs. However, this list
may be updated, so send omissions/corrections/updates to the
contact author.
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