Professional Documents
Culture Documents
roughly nine citations per paper/book. Thus, while some their youthful minds were inspired by his gentle means
may disagree with Bill’s philosophical approach, there of guidance: his inquiry about underlying physical
is no denying the fact that he has influenced the practice principles, his suggestions for what the next steps might
of process control at the grassroots level perhaps more be, and his encouraging words (“I am sure you can do
than any other academic and that his books and papers better than this”).
are consulted by many chemical engineers all over the In addition to his research and mentoring of graduate
world. students, Bill devoted much of his time and energy over
Bill’s concern for practical relevance has been the 35 plus years at Lehigh University to undergraduate
single most consistent driving force behind all that he education. His influence on generations of chemical
has done, and this is the defining characteristic that engineering students at Lehigh University is legendary
best captures the essence of his impact on the practice (from the introductory chemical engineering course to
of process control. His first book, Process Modeling, the unit operations laboratory, to the process control
Simulation, and Control for Chemical Engineers pub- course, and through the capstone process design course).
lished in 1973 by McGraw Hill, was one of the first to He was the primary guiding force behind a number of
offer an integrated treatment of mathematical modeling, curriculum changes aimed at sustaining the Lehigh
computer simulation, and process control. It was “dedi- tradition of educating engineering students in both
cated to the engineer: the scientist who converts the theory and practice. Several of his eight published books
feasible into the practical”. Bill has also built a reputa- are devoted to undergraduate education (Chemical
tion for “keeping the control community honest” espe- Process Analysis; Process Modeling, Simulation, and
cially when it comes to the design and implementation Control for Chemical Engineers, 1st and 2nd eds.;
of control systems that are more sophisticated than the Essentials of Process Control; Plantwide Dynamic Simu-
classic PID controller. He is well-known for his skepti- lators in Chemical Processing and Control). All are
cism about the true efficacy of many of the modern characterized by Bill’s unique style and practical focus.
control techniques, having seen, in a lifetime that began It seems altogether fitting and appropriate that Ind.
with pneumatic instrumentation and analogue comput- Eng. Chem. Res. should publish this special issue
ers, many technologies burst forth only to fade away because much of Bill’s work was published in this
quietly for lack of practicality. Nevertheless, in the journal. We thank Editor Donald R. Paul, who continues
words of a well-respected member of the process control to make such special issues possible for the Chemical
community, “If I had a tough industrial control problem Engineering community. We now join all of the con-
that needed a practical solution, Bill Luyben is the tributors to this Festschrift and Bill Luyben’s family
person I would seek”. (wife Janet, sons William and Michael, and grandchil-
Bill’s dedication to educating the next generation has dren Nathaniel, Trevor, and Elizabeth) in wishing him
been truly admirable and many of his former graduate a happy 70th birthday, while thanking him for his many
students have gone on to become leaders in their own contributions to the practice of process systems engi-
rights. This is particularly true of the significant neering.
number of international students from such countries
as Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, Babatunde A. Ogunnaike*
and Taiwan, who have studied under Bill and subse- Chemical Engineering Department, University of
quently returned to their home countries, in many cases Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716
rising to leadership positions, greatly extending Bill’s
Cheng-Ching Yu†
contribution to the larger international community.
Department of Chemical Engineering, National
Many of these former students still remember vividly
Taiwan University, Taipei 106-17, Taiwan
the unscheduled research discussions on rainy days (Bill
is a dedicated part-time farmer). They recall fondly how IE030520D