The School of Chemical Engineering Hosts the Inaugural Mellichamp Lecture
October 3, 2013
The Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Lecture in Chemical Engineering was established in 2013 to recognize the work of a distinguished young researcher in any area related to the field of chemical engineering. The recipient is selected by the School of Chemical Engineering faculty in recognition of his or her contributions to research and education.
About the Donors:
A founding member of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a campus and UC academic leader, Duncan Mellichamp (PhD 1964) is currently Emeritus Professor. Highly regarded in the field of process dynamics control, he is the author or co-author of over 100 research papers, monographs, and books, including an award-winning textbook, Process Dynamics and Control, with third edition published by John Wiley in 2010. Although retired from UCSB in 2003, he continues to co-teach a senior process design course. Having eclectic interests, he has served on the Board of the Opera Santa Barbara since 1993 (president, 2009-12). Dr. Mellichamp received Purdue’s Outstanding Chemical Engineering Award in 2007.
Suzanne Mellichamp is a retired schoolteacher. She taught elementary classes, including special education classes, for nearly 30 years. With a B.A. degree from the University of Northern Iowa, after finishing coursework at Purdue, she received her master’s degree in education in 1970 from the UCSB’s Gewirtz Graduate School of Education, with an emphasis in studio art, and taught for a number of years in Santa Barbara City Schools. She currently serves on the board of directors of Santa Barbara Beautiful and has been a longtime docent for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
The inaugural Mellichamp lecture was given by Brian Pfleger, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Pfleger received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 2000 and his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering in 2005 from the University of California-Berkeley under the supervision of Professor Jay Keasling. His lecture, Sustainability via Synthetic Biology – A Growing Role for Biotechnology in the Chemical Industry was presented on Thursday, October 3, 2013 in Forney Hall.