The Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering is an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are ...

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, one of many endowed chairs at Cambridge.

History and influence

The Shell Chair was created in 1945 after a donation was made by

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

for the purpose of creating the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Cambridge.

Terence Fox Terence Robert Corelli Fox (2 May 1912 – 5 October 1962), often called T.R.C. Fox, was a notable British chemical engineer. He was a member of the Atomic Energy Council and the first Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Univers ...

served as the first Shell Professor. Initially the Shell Professors also chaired the chemical engineering department, but in 1998 these two roles were separated, with the department chair becoming a fixed-term position that could also be held by other professors. John Augustus Oriel, chief chemist for Shell and later president of the

Institution of Chemical Engineers The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is a global professional engineering institution with 30,000 members in 114 countries. It was founded in 1922 and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957. The Institution has offices in Rugby, Warwickshire, ...

, played a key role in persuading the company to make this donation and in negotiating its terms with the university. The donation of £435,000 was, at the time, the second-largest gift the university had been given. At the time of the donation, representatives for Shell argued that the Shell Professors should be paid considerably more than other Cambridge professors, because of the need to compete with industry salaries, but this did not happen. The Shell Chair is frequently cited in

anti-corporate activism Anti-corporate activism is activism directed against the private sector, particularly larger Corporation, corporations. It is based on the belief that the activities and impacts of big business are detrimental to the Public good (economics), publ ...

as an example of

industry funding of academic research Industry funding of academic research in the United States is one of the two major sources of research funding in academia along with government support. Currently, private funding of research accounts for the majority of all research and developmen ...

Chairholders

The Shell Professors have been: *1945–1959:

*1959–1978:

Peter Danckwerts Peter Victor Danckwerts (14 October 1916 – 25 October 1984) was a chemical engineer who pioneered the concept of the residence time distribution. In 1940, during the Second World War, he was awarded the George Cross for his work in defusing Par ...

*1978–1993: John Davidson *1993–2004: John Bridgwater *2004–present:

Lynn Gladden Dame Lynn Faith Gladden (born 30 July 1961) is the Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She served as Pro-vice-chancellor for research from 2010 to 2016. Gladden was elected a member of the National Academy ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Chemical Engineering, Shell 1945 establishments in England Chemistry education in the United Kingdom Engineering education in the United Kingdom Chemical Engineering, Shell School of Technology, University of Cambridge Chemical Engineering, Shell