EDITORIAL
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Editor: DAVID E. G U S H E E Editorial Headquarters 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D. C. 20036 Phone 202-737-3337 Assistant Editors: William L. Jenkins, D. H. Michael Bowen Manager Research Results Service: Stella Anderson Layout and Production: Joseph Jacobs, Director of Design Bacil Guiley, Production Manager Leroy Corcoran, Assistant Art Director Geraldine Lucas (Layout) Production-Easton, Pa. Associate Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Assistant: Jane M . Andrews International Editorial Bureaus Frankfurt/Main, West Germany Grosse Bockenheimerstrasse 32 Donald J. Soisson London, W.C.2, England 27 John Adam St. Tokyo, Japan 12 Iikura Kata-machi, Azabu Minato-ku Michael K . McAbee ADVISORY BOARD: S. George Bankoff, William C. Bauman, Floyd L. Culler, Merrell R. Fenske, Leo Friend, Howard L. Gerhart, Robert L. Hershey, Charles A. Kumins, Robert N. Maddox, Charles N. Satterfield, Warren c. Schreiner, Eric G. Schwartz, Thomas K. Sherwood, Joseph Stewart, Shen W u W a n
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D. C. 20036 Director of Publications: Richard L. Kenyon Director of Business Operations: Joseph H. Kuney Publication Manager, Journals: David E. Gushee Executive Assistant to the Director of Publications: Rodney N. Hader Circulation Development Manager : Herbert C. Spencer Assistant to the Director of Publications: William Q. Hull Advertising Management R E I N H O L D PUBLISHING C O R P O R A T I O N (For list of offices, see page 88)
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Rapprochement-Opportunity for Industry we discussed (I&EC, December 1967, page 7) the presence R ecently, of signs that chemistry and chemical engineering are entering a new era of rapprochement, that the drifting apart of these historically close professions was reversing itself. For the two disciplines to come together, however, one or both must move toward the other, and some of the difficulties facing such moves are beginning to surface. The first major problem is that university chemistry departments do not necessarily embrace the chemical engineering suitor. Just as engineering has been moving toward the fundamental phenomena affecting it, so has chemistry. Chemistry has its own personality to express. And descriptive chemistry is p a d ; few make academic or peer group points by teaching it this way to engineers. Secondly, the once close association of the chemical literature with the bulk of chemical practice is weakening. I t is more and more difficult for an engineer, no matter how assiduously he tries, to build a picture of chemical practice from the chemical literature. Thirdly, chemists who learn to appreciate the significance of engineering variables such as agitation, heat transfer, solvent and raw material selection, and the like, are few compared to the number who continue to select their reaction conditions primarily on the basis of laboratory convenience. Of those who do, few return to academic life to pass their insight on to the next generation-either of chemistsorof engineers. Similar considerations apply to the engineering side. We have frequently detailed them in I&EC. But at this moment, it is the chemical engineers who have the primary, directly personal motivation to do something. Equivalent pressures have not yet hit chemistry, although the forces which will lead to those pressures can be seen to be building. Perhaps, however, this dilemma could be turned into opportunity. Industrial employers have been complaining for at least 20 years that new chemists do not understand, appreciate, or sympathize with industry’s utilization of chemical research for applied purposes. They recognize that Federal funding has not only permitted a drift of academic attitudes away from industrial thought patterns, but has fostered such a drift. The same concern is being expressed by industry about new chemical engineers-and by thoughtful, practically oriented chemical engineering faculty about themselves. More and more one hears the concern that academic chemical engineering research does not relate to industrial chemical engineering. Rather, it, too, follows the money. But as Federal financing of academic research levels off, industry has an opportunity to step in and make its financial pressure felt. Finding the mechanism whereby enough money can be provided and effectively distributed is a terribly difficult problem and is a major hurdle. So also is the natural desire of individual donors to retain a t least some control over the distribution of their money. But circumstances appear to be offering industry a chance to put its money where its mouth has been. I t behooves industry to try to capitalize on it.
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