Robert Squires - Office of Professional Practice - Purdue University

Squires, PhD, studied catalysis under a pioneer scientist in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Giuseppe Parravano, who had previously worked in Italy as an assistant to Giulio Natta (Nobel laureate, 1963). Squires arrived at Purdue as a chemical engineering faculty member in 1962 and established an ambitious program in catalysis, working initially with IR spectroscopy and then with other spectroscopic techniques. In the 1970s along with W.N. Delgass, Squires established the catalysis research program of the School of Chemical Engineering, which is still a major component of the school‘s research portfolio.

For years, Squires and wife Carol invited students over to their house for informal evening chats with snacks. Other than the Catalyst Club, it was the only informal opportunity many students had to know a professor as a person. Squires received almost every important local and national teaching award, including the prestigious 1981 Amoco Foundation Award, now the Murphy Award. Squires was the first ChE faculty member to win the award, which recognizes the best university teachers. He won the Shreve prize as the best teacher in ChE six times (1976, 1981, 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1996) and the Potter Award as the best teacher in the College of Engineering twice (1977 and 1991). Nationally, he won the ASEE Western Electric Award in 1977 and the Chemical Manufacturers Association Catalyst Award in 1985. In the 1980s and 1990s, Squires became interested in developing videos that allowed students to do experiments virtually that were impossible to do in the unit operations laboratory. 

Squires‘ interest in students led him to accept the position as the coordinator of the chemical engineering Cooperative Engineering Education Program in 1982. He would regularly travel to employer sites to check in with students and tour the facilities. Squires tirelessly promoted the program to employers when they were visiting campus and would always arrange a special table during co-op days so he could sit with the chemical engineering employers.

He administered the program through several economic downturns that resulted in significant decreases in student participation and promoted the program when employer and student interest began to shift to summer internships. He served as the chemical engineering co-op coordinator from 1982-2004, when he retired.

Squires was heavily involved in many national societies, including the Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, which he served as chairman in 1980, and he was elected a councilor of ACS.

At the time Squires retired in December 2004, he held the record for longevity on the faculty, 42 years, in 2011 tied with Bob Hannemann and Neal Houze.