UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 15, Page 10
December 16, 1993
U.D. chemical engineering chairperson receives award

     Michael T. Klein, chairperson of the Department of Chemical
Engineering, has received the Delaware Section Award from the American
Chemical Society.
     Klein received the award Nov. 17 at a section meeting in Downingtown,
Pa.  The award recognizes his "conspicuous scientific achievement and
contributions in an area of chemistry or chemical engineering."
     Klein has a joint appointment in the University's departments of
Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Biochemistry and is known for his
efforts to integrate both fields through activities in research, teaching
and academic administration.
     In research, Klein has concentrated on an area of applied chemistry
dealing with chemical reaction systems of such enormous complexity that
they have historically defied fundamental analysis.
     Klein received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering with
highest honors from the University in 1977. He received his doctorate in
chemical engineering in 1981 from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
     He served as assistant and associate professor of chemical engineering
at the University from 1981-89. He also has served as associate dean,
director of the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology and was
appointed a full professor in 1989.
     He has chaired the Department of Chemical Engineering since l991.
     Klein's major interests are in chemical reaction engineering:
pyrolysis, catalysis, reaction in supercritical fluid solvents; chemical
modeling of complex reaction systems; and refining processes, syn-fuels and
polymer synthesis.
     He received a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National
Science Foundation in l985, was named in Outstanding Young Men of America
in 1988 and in Who's Who in Science and Engineering in 1993.