Hudds ChemEng duo win IChemE Hutchison Medal

Professor Grant Campbell and Dr Daniel Belton won the Institution of Chemical Engineering’s Hutchison Medal for their paper on setting up new chemical engineering degree programmes in ScienceDirect’s Education for Chemical Engineers

A LEADING figure in chemical engineering has paid a visit to the University of Huddersfield – which now offers a popular degree course in the subject – where he presented a prestigious award to two members of the academic staff, inspected facilities for teaching and research, and spoke to a group of new graduates.

Ken Rivers is President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and he came to Huddersfield to present medals to Grant Campbell, who is Professor of Chemical Engineering, and lecturer Dr Daniel Belton.

The two men are joint winners of the IChemE’s Hutchison Medal.  Named after a past President of the Institution, it is awarded to the authors of “wide-ranging, philosophical or thought-provoking published papers”.

Judges chose a paper co-authored by Professor Campbell and Dr Belton that was published in Education for Chemical Engineers.  It illustrates the issues of new programme development through the approaches and experiences of the University of Huddersfield when it introduced new chemical engineering programmes in the 2013–2014 academic year.

“Our medals are internationally recognised and highly prestigious,” said IChemE President Mr Rivers.  “The Hutchison is about innovation, creativity and development.  It embraces not just the technology of chemical engineering, but education as well.”

Chemical Engineering at the forefront

Mr Rivers – who has more than 35 years’ experience of the oil industry in the UK and overseas – added that he welcomed the opportunity to visit the University of Huddersfield and inspect the new facilities for the study of chemical engineering, a highly popular subject that offers graduates the potential for high earnings.

“Chemical engineers can make contributions to some of the biggest challenges that the world faces, in fields such as energy, the environment, nutrition, the availability of water and bio-technology,” said Mr Rivers.

He also chairs the UK’s Major Hazards Forum and added that chemical engineering was relevant to this area too, pointing out that the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, set up by the Government following the Grenfell fire, is led by a chemical engineer, Dame Judith Hackett.

After his tour of the University’s facilities and the medal presentation to Professor Campbell and Dr Belton, Mr Rivers met a group of former students who had that day been the second cohort at Huddersfield to graduate in chemical engineering.

He spoke about the evolving discipline of chemical engineering and the contributions chemical engineers make as the world faces ever greater challenges of supplying energy, food, water and materials while preserving the environment.

Representatives from local companies Syngenta, Manrochem and Solvay in Halifax were also in attendance to award prizes to several of the graduating students.