By FRED HEATH
A $1 million endowed professorship was officially announced for the chemical engineering department Tuesday at a dinner in Salt Lake City.
“The dinner is a public announcement (of gratitude) for their generosity,” said Kenneth Solen, department chair of the chemical engineering department.
The endowed professorship fund has been established at $1 million from Bill and Margaret Pope, Solen said.
Pope taught at BYU’s chemical engineering department for 20 years and wife taught religion according to news release.
“We are extremely grateful for Bill and Margaret Pope, whose selfless generosity will truly enhance the academic experience of our students and advance the scholarly work of our faculty,” said Douglas Chabries, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology.
“The professorship will provide significant help in the scholarly work that goes on in our department,” Solen said.
The added funding will allow the department to do research that is different than a typical research project, said Merrill Beckstead, professor of chemical engineering.
“The professorship will give us some freedom to try interesting things and do research of detailed chemistry,” he said.
There is also a possibility of more funding, if the research can meet certain goals in a set time frame, Solen said.
The achievement of these goals depends on students working with those in the department, Solen said.
The students involved will be more thoroughly educated because of the professorship, he said.
Instead of one professor receiving the award this year, the professorship has been awarded to two people, Beckstead and Calvin Bartholomew, both professors in the chemical engineering department. The professorship will last for five years, Bartholomew said.
Appointing students to help is in its beginning stages, Beckstead said.
“Right now I have one student that I will hire to help with modeling flame kinetics and will possibly hire one or two more students to help with the research,” Beckstead said.
