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DuPont honors Russell for engineering excellence
The honor has traditionally been reserved for DuPont engineers and scientists for outstanding technical contributions, however Russell was honored for his “guidance and technical leadership” as a consultant to the company’s Engineering Service Division from 1968-98. “On behalf of DuPont Engineering, I wish to congratulate you on a long career of teaching and research, and to thank you for the many contributions you have made to DuPont processes and products by your teaching, consulting and mentoring,” James B. Porter Jr., DuPont chief engineer and vice president, wrote in announcing the award. “We thank you for your guidance and technical leadership and look forward to a continued association with you in the future.” The award was formally presented Oct. 24 during a special session in which Russell outlined for the DuPont engineering division his 30 years of consulting. “I was very honored to receive the award,” he said. Russell said that he spent about one day a week throughout the course of those three decades working with the heat, mass and momentum transfer group in the engineering division at the former DuPont facility at Louviers, just outside Newark. “Being able to interact with practicing engineers at Louviers on a regular basis had a positive impact on my teaching and my research,” Russell, who had worked at Union Carbide Canada before joining the UD faculty in 1964, said. The work provided valuable insights that he could share with students, Russell said, citing the impact on the teaching of analysis. “Engineers in industry have time constraints and uncertainties not found in academia,” he said. “Incorporating that concept made the teaching much more effective and the research completed on campus had more immediate and pragmatic value.” The close relationship with DuPont also led to the establishment of two formal internship programs and many more informal interactions between students and the company, Russell said. DuPont benefited from UD involvement through innovative research and fresh ideas and solutions, Russell said, citing as one example modifications to bio-oxidation reactor ponds at the company’s Chambers Works in nearby New Jersey that saved several hundreds of thousands of dollars and had further applications at other of the company’s waste treatment facilities. “We came up with a simple, efficient solution that used less energy than other solutions,” Russell said. “Our resources at UD, in cooperation with the engineering division, produced very useful and pragmatic results for DuPont.” “It is really important to note that this was a two-way street,” Russell said. “The work had a positive impact on their operations and on the teaching we do at UD.” Russell earned bachelor and master of science degrees from the University of Alberta and a doctorate from the University of Delaware, all in chemical engineering. In addition to being the Allan P. Colburn Professor, he is chief engineer of UD’s Institute of Energy Conversion, a U.S. Department of Energy University Center of Excellence devoted to thin film photovoltaic research and a laboratory he directed for 16 years. Russell, who is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, won a UD Excellence in Teaching Award in 1968 and the Francis Alison Award in 1990, and has served as vice provost for research, dean of the College of Engineering and chairperson of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Article by Neil Thomas |
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