Success and Prospects in Transport

The study of transport phenomena is an important area of chemical engineering. In many ways it differentiates chemical engineering from other disciplines, such as biomedical and material engineering. In this lecture, Dr. Morton Denn tracks the development of transport in the chemical engineering curriculum. He also outlines some of the trends that have shaped the focus of chemical engineers working with transport phenomena. He continues with a prognostication for the future of chemical engineers working in transport. He predicts a stronger focus on applications, such as bio- and nanotechnologies, than on the pure study of transport phenomena. This bias towards applications will lead to the eventual death of the “pure” transport practitioner in chemical engineering. Chemical engineers studying transport phenomena in the future will have to focus on multi-scale models with a specific goal in mind, such as the self-assembly of nanoparticles with particular properties.