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J. R. Fair
Dedication It is with great pleasure that we dedicate this issue to Professor James R. Fair on the occasion of his "official", hut not actual,retirementfromfulltime professorialduties at The Universityof Texas at Austin. This issue contains a series of papers by a number of ~ icolleagues, ~ ' is intended as of whom are his former a celebration of a long and fruitful career in chemical engineeringin which Jim has made many significant and lasting contributions. His impact on the field of separascience and t e c h o l o ~ has been made through fundamend research, through development of design methods, through promotion of the field, through management of separations projects, and in education. T O understand how one individual could SO completely encompassa field, it is necessary to point out that he has, in effect, had three careers. The first was as a practicing
engineer onnumerousprojecta for theMonsantoCompany during the period 1942-1952. The second career commenced following receipt of the Ph.D. degree and spans the Years from 19% to 1979. The third Career began in ~ 1979when he moved to The University of Texas at Austin to initiate an academic program of teaching and research in separations. Perhaps one of my greatest contributions to The University of Texas at Austin was the role I played as of the Chemical Engineering Department in bringing him to o~ campus; It did not require a really hard sell to bring him to Austin because he always had an interest in education. ~~~i~~his with the ManBanto Company in St. Louis,Jim was an affiliate Professor of ChemicalEngineering at Washington University where he was involved in the teaching of design of separation processes. Since 1970 he has taught, with various collaborators, a continuing education course "Distillation in
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Practice” which by now has been given nearly 100 times with thousands of participants. Jim has had a long history of promoting industryuniversity cooperation and has worked from both sides very effectively. When he was in industry he was involved in many outreach programs to universities for improvements in education and in separations technology. While at The University of Texas at Austin he has had a strong outreach to industry. The most visible evidence of this is the Separations Research Program, which he founded in 1982. It is a research consortium funded by industry and other supporting agencies. Through his leadership, the facilities for separations research at The University of Texas at Austin are now among the most advanced anywhere in the world, and a strong interdisciplinary approach to separations has resulted. The sponsors represent a diverse array of companies and agencies throughout North America, South America, and Europe. The program involves 7 faculty members, approximately 60 graduate students, several full time research professionals, and a number of postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists working in membranes,supercritical fluids, and environmental problems, in addition to his own personal research in distillation, gas adsorption, liquid-liquid extraction, etc.
Jim has been widely recognized for hie professional contributions by a number of professional organizations and by The University of Texas at Austin. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1974 and has received honorary doctoratesfrom Washington University and from ClemsonUniversity. In addition to many awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE),he was honored BB one of 30 Eminent Chemical Engineers at the AIChE Diamond Jubilee Meeting. Most recently he was given the Malcolm Pruitt Award by the Council for Chemical Research, because of his contributions to promoting interactions between universities and the chemical industry, and the Separation Science and Technology Award from the American Chemical Society. He is an active participant in many organizations outaide of the profession. He is an expert historian on railroads and has written a book on the subject. Finally, it is only necessary to say that Jim Fair is a fine gentlemen, who is well liked and respected by his friends, colleagues, and students. This issue is but a small token of our esteem for him.
Donald R. Paul Editor
