William Licht
University of Cincinnati
When I was about eight years old, a neighbor visiting my parents remarked, "That boy is going to be a teacher." While his crystal ball was especially clear, it didn't reveal a future in chemical engineering. As a kid I played with Erector sets, Chemcraft sets, and electrical gadgets, and I delved into photography, learned to love the great outdoors (Eagle Scout), had piano lessons, and began to appreciate literature, poetry, and music. After a good experience with chemistry in high school and with a strong interest in the University of Cincinnati's co-op plan for engineering education, I decided to study chemical engineering. I had no idea what chemical engineers did for a living!
In the midst of the Great Depression, there weren’t co-op jobs available at first, but in 1934 the Dow Chemical Company decided to start a co-op program with the University of Cincinnati. I was a member of the first student pair selected to work at Midland, MI on lab projects related to "Fabrication of Chemicals from Natural Brine.” This was the title of my first paper, published in the college magazine. Seventy-two years later Dow commemorated this beginning by sponsoring the naming of a lab at UC in my honor.
In the summer after my senior year I suffered a serious illness which left me unfit for military service. World War II was imminent, so upon recovery I decided to remain in Cincinnati for graduate education. Then, one Saturday morning in September 1939, I received a phone call from R.S. Tour, Chemical Engineering Department Head at UC and one of the pioneers in AIChE, asking if I'd like to begin teaching on the Monday following. Senior Chemical Engineering faculty members were being summoned into government service, and replacement teachers were desperately needed. I had only an MS degree but had begun some pioneering research on the effect of pressure upon the composition and boiling point of azeotropic mixtures. I grew up in teaching (and in many other ways) with the late H.J. Garber as a role model to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for his lifelong friendship.
As the U.S. entered WWII, teaching needs dwindled, but a great professional opportunity arose. A Cincinnati company, under the leadership of George D. Metzger, was developing an oxygen drying system for the US Army Air Force. Technical assurance to meet the AAF specifications (dry to a dew point of - 100 deg F) was to be provided by the UC College of Engineering. Garber and I became the professional staff. To Metzger I am also indebted for introduction into the world of business and government contracting.
After the War, many veterans who were very able, conscientious and demanding students, flocked back to campus. Our roles reverted to heavy teaching for several years. Then it became time for reorganization and new growth in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Cincinnati. Now, having a PhD based upon research on “The Absorption Wave in Desiccant Beds,” I was named Professor in 1950 and Department Head in 1952 upon the death of R.S. Tour. A full program in metallurgical engineering also now existed, and the name of the department had been changed to Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. New degree programs in Materials Science and in Nuclear Engineering were also growing in the department during the '60s.
In 1964 the entire University changed its calendar to a quarter system in order to put all co-op and non-co-op colleges on the same interchangeable basis. All of the curricula in the College of Engineering had to be revamped to fit the new calendar. This was a huge undertaking, said to be akin to “moving a graveyard.” Dean C. Wandmacher (who was another major influence upon my career) named me as Chairman of a Council on Education to carry out this task. In doing so, the Council also created new core programs in the basic engineering sciences and in humanistic/social studies which were introduced into all the undergraduate degree programs. These changes were phased in gradually and put the college on a solid path into the post-war era. During this period, I also served a term as Chairman of the All-University Faculty, precursor to the present-day Faculty Senate.
Many students from other countries came to earn graduate degrees in our various programs. As an Adviser I came to know several from India, China, and Thailand very well. When I was granted a sabbatical leave, my wife and I decided to travel. When some of the Indian students heard this, they said, “You must come to India!” When we told this to our travel agent, he said, “Then you must go around the world - it's cheaper!” We were warmly hosted in many places by families and friends of the students. I lectured in India and Israel, and we established an award in Mithapur, India (home of Tata Chemicals Ltd.), to be given to the outstanding high school graduate each year and to be administered by the local Rotary Club. Some of these folks have stayed in touch and have come to visit us in my retirement years. To feel that I have contributed even in this small way to a better international climate has been a very heart-warming facet of my career.
In 1967 the time seemed ripe for me to leave administrative work and get back into teaching and research. The major revolution in all kinds of scientific and technical work brought on by electronic computing, data processing, and communication was helping toopen up all kinds of new activities. For me, it led into air pollution control and gasohol.
Feeling, no doubt, that at first I might be at loose ends, Dean Wandmacher arranged for me to become Chairman of the Air Pollution Control Board of the City of Cincinnati. At about the same time, with the passage of the federal Clean Air Act in 1970, the college began a graduate-level program in air pollution control, one of the first in the country. Under the leadership of John N. Pattison and with Charles W. Gruber (retired APC Engineer for the city), we developed a complete curriculum, a set of new courses, and research programs for senior electives, MS and PhD degrees. Because there was an urgent and great need for specially trained engineers to staff the many control agencies being created all over the country, this work was federally subsidized at first. We traveled extensively, giving short courses for the EPA and AIChE all over the USA, while at the same time running the program at home.
My special field became particulate behavior and the design of particulate control systems. In the early '60s the American Petroleum Institute had sponsored a state-of-the-art study of dust removal from gases conducted by the UC Departments of Chemical Engineering and of Environmental Health. At that time I was the coordinator for Chemical Engineering and wrote the report on Filtration. From this beginning my research and writing expanded in the new program and culminated in the publication of a book, “Air Pollution Control Engineering: Basic Calculations in Particulate Control”, Marcel Dekker, NY, 2nd Edition 1987. During the development of both the air pollution work and the book, I was greatly aided by an invitation to spend two quarters as a Visiting Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and I was given free time to continue my work.
In the early '80s, the concept of “gasohol” swept over the country. People wanted to find out whether they could make ethanol profitably by fermenting such things as rice, potatoes, potato peelings, orange peels, corn stover, sugar beets, etc.— in addition to corn. I worked as a consultant for some months helping to explore these ideas. None of these sources proved to be feasible except corn, which has developed today as a major source to help meet the petroleum fuel crisis.
As my academic career drew towards its close, I was recognized by two awards in which I take great pride. One is the Cornelius Wandmacher Award for Outstanding Teaching in the College of Engineering, and the other is the University-wide Mrs. A.B. (Dolly) Cohen Award for Teaching. These were based upon input from students, alumni, and colleagues and selection by faculty committees. For the latter award only two recipients are named each year and their names entered upon a permanent bronze plaque.
I have now been retired for over twenty years. During that time my wife and I have been able to enlarge upon several of our lifetime interests. These include travel, the study of literature, music and poetry, volunteer service in Hospice and in the Stephen Ministry (caregivers during crisis, and Bible study). Many of my colleagues may be surprised to learn that in the last several decades I became an eager student of the Bible, participating in many courses and study groups and teaching an adult church school class for fourteen years.
One of my colleagues once said that I was a “teacher's teacher.” I am not certain what he meant, but I take it to be an affirmation of my career. I believe that I have fulfilled the crystal ball prophecy of becoming a teacher. I have also found out what chemical engineers do. The answer is “almost everything!"
Dr. William Licht passed away November 22, 2006. He wrote this in April 2006.