UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 31, Page 1
May 12, 1994
Colburn Lab expansion to enhance campus research

     More than 185 business leaders, government officials, friends of the
University, alumni, faculty and students attended a ceremony May 6 marking
the beginning of construction of expanded and enhanced facilities for
Colburn Laboratory, home of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
     "This $22 million project will include a significant increase in the
size and quality of research laboratories and associated support space for
the preeminent Department of Chemical Engineering," University President
David P. Roselle said.
     The project is being made possible by a partnership involving the
University, the state of Delaware, corporations and foundations, friends
and alumni, he said. "Together with the commitment of the faculty, staff
and students in the chemical engineering program, our mission will be
accomplished in a way that all of our partners will be extremely proud of
us."
     Joseph A. Miller Jr., senior vice president of central research and
development at the DuPont Co. and the featured speaker at the ceremony,
said, "The name Allan P. Colburn represents a substantial intellectual
legacy to which the University of Delaware and DuPont jointly and proudly
lay claim.
     "Some of our friends and colleagues just outside Boston might
quibble," Miller said, "but I think we can reasonably say that much of the
discipline of modern chemical engineering was invented within 20 miles of
where we are gathered today. And Allan Colburn had a lot to do with
that....
     Miller said Colburn's career at DuPont and at the University of
Delaware "symbolizes the cross-fertilization between industry and
university research that has been crucial to the development of the
chemical industry in this country."
     "Chemical engineering is truly a core competency of the University of
Delaware," Miller said, "and this building is a concrete reaffirmation both
of the importance of that competency and to the value you place on seeking
fundamental process knowledge.... The bricks and mortar building we
initiate with this ceremony will achieve its potential only if we in the
technical community are committed to keeping the whole enterprise of
commerce and engineering education competitive.
     "This University's chemical engineering department-and the chemical
industry to which it has been such an important contributor-can and must
remain world class for many years to come," he said.
     Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Jr., chairman of the University's Board of
Trustees, said, "Next year, in 1995, the Department (of Chemical
Engineering) will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the University's first
granting of an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering. This
anniversary coincides with the expected completion of the current
fundraising campaign for the Colburn Lab. That is a campaign guided by a
national committee of unusual stature which we are confident will be
successful and for which we are most grateful....
     "Over the 80 years its degrees have been granted," Kirkpatrick said,
"the chemical engineering department has consistently achieved goals set at
the highest levels, not only in advancing study and research but also in
shaping careers dedicated to professional and to civic responsibility."
     "I look at this project from many perspectives," Stuart L. Cooper, H.
Rodney Sharp Professor and dean of the College of Engineering, said. "As a
professor in chemical engineering, I am excited about the possibilities
this expansion will provide in terms of the improved teaching environment,
research facilities and office and laboratory space. As dean of the
college, I am excited about the opportunities for increased interactions
with other departments in the college and throughout the University."
     Michael T. Klein, chairperson of the Department of Chemical
Engineering and a UD alumnus, delivered thanks from the department's
faculty, students and staff, and he described the strategy that Colburn and
Robert L. Pigford used in the 1940s to build the department: "The absolute
best way to put in place a program of strong undergraduate education,
graduate education and service to the community is to integrate these
activities into one irreducible whole."
     Morton Collins, UD alumnus and chairperson of the National Committee
for the Colburn Laboratory Campaign, said, "As a student of this department
from 1954 to 1958, I was privileged to have benefited directly from the
pioneering work of Allan Colburn, Robert Pigford and Jack Gerster, giants
in their profession who spent their careers building a department which had
every promise of attaining world-class status.
     "Over the years, I have been immensely pleased to watch the department
continue to grow to the point where today it is recognized as a premiere
center of chemical engineering and chemical engineering education, not only
in this country but worldwide," Collins said.
     The national campaign, which has a $7 million goal, has so far raised
more than $4 million from alumni and friends, he said. "Our goal is to
secure the remaining $3 million in new gifts between now and the end of
1995."
     Delaware Gov. Thomas R.Carper said, "As a graduate of this University,
I'm awfully proud to be able to come back here and to be with all of you,
to walk this campus again and to see the changes that are taking place...."
He called the expansion of Colburn Laboratory a "wonderful legacy that we
leave to those young students and maybe those not-so-young students that
will follow us in the days and years to come."
     Architect for the two-phase Colburn project is Kerht Shatken Sharon
Associates, and construction management is by EDiS Construction Co.
     The first phase will extend all four floors of Colburn Laboratory
eastward toward Academy Street and southward, adding laboratory, office and
support space. This phase will add approximately 39,600 gross square feet
of space, and a major building entrance will be added on Academy Street.
     The second phase will involve renovation of existing laboratories
within Colburn Laboratory, as well as consolidation of faculty and
administrative office space.