[CCoE Notice] Neal Amundson

[Dean Joseph Tedesco]

Dear Cullen College Faculty and Staff,

It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing today of Neal
Amundson, Cullen Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
and Professor of Mathematics. Neal was a member of our college family from
1976 until his retirement in 2007.  Many of you had the privilege to work
closely with Neal and will understand what his loss means to the college.
For those not so fortunate, I offer the following brief narrative of his
life's work:

Neal was widely regarded as one of the most prominent chemical engineering
educators in the country and a pioneer of chemical reaction engineering.
Before joining UH in 1976, he led the top-ranked University of Minnesota
Department of Chemical Engineering for thirty years. His addition to the
University of Houston helped launch our chemical engineering program into
the Top 10 nationally during the early 1980s.

Neal's research contributions to the field of chemical reaction engineering
were outstanding. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering
in 1970 for his pioneering research into the fundamental analysis of
chemical processes as well as for his role in engineering education.
Specifically, he analyzed and modeled chemical reactors, separation systems,
polymerization and coal combustion.

Throughout the years, Neal's contributions to engineering education and
research were widely recognized by organizations such as the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, the American
Society of Engineering Education and the International Symposia of Chemical
Reaction Engineering, an organization that named an award in his honor. The
Neal R. Amundson Award is bestowed every three years to recognize a pioneer
in the field - the last award was given in 2010 to our own Dan Luss, one of
Neal's Ph.D. graduates from the University of Minnesota.

In addition to the NAE, Neal was an elected member of the National Academy
of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a
recipient of the NAE Founders' Award and holds honorary doctorates from the
University of Minnesota, University of Notre Dame, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Guadalajara and Northwestern University. He
earned a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of
Minnesota in 1937 and 1945, respectively; and a Ph.D. in mathematics from UM
in 1947.

At UH, he was honored with the Farfel Award, the highest university honor,
and served as provost for the university from 1987 to 1989. At the
University of Minnesota, they named the building that houses the Department
of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science "Amundson Hall." Here in the
college, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering holds an
annual lecture named in his honor.

What Neal has done for chemical engineering and the University of Houston is
profound. We will be posting a tribute about his long, prolific career on
website in the coming week. Information about his funeral will be
forthcoming.



Dean Joseph W. Tedesco

 

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