The Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering is an endowed chair in chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge, one of many endowed chairs at Cambridge.

History and influence

The Shell Chair was created in 1945 after a donation was made by Royal Dutch Shell for the purpose of creating the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Cambridge.[1] Terence Fox served as the first Shell Professor.[1] Initially the Shell Professors also chaired the chemical engineering department, but in 1998 these two roles were separated, with the department chair becoming a fixed-term position that could also be held by other professors.[2]

John Augustus Oriel, chief chemist for Shell and later president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, played a key role in persuading the company to make this donation and in negotiating its terms with the university.[3][4] The donation of £435,000 was, at the time, the second-largest gift the university had been given.[5] At the time of the donation, representatives for Shell argued that the Shell Professors should be paid considerably more than other Cambridge professors, because of the need to compete with industry salaries, but this did not happen.[3]

The Shell Chair is frequently cited in anti-corporate activism as an example of industry funding of academic research.[6]

Chairholders

The Shell Professors have been:[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Chemical Engineering at Cambridge: Prof. T. R. C. Fox", Nature, 157 (3997): 761–761, June 1946, doi:10.1038/157761c0
  2. ↑ History: 1945 to date, Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, retrieved 19 January 2020
  3. 1 2 Bridgwater, J. (1996), Fifty Years Young: Products and Processes – The Future of Chemical Engineering, Cambridge University Press, pp. 3–4, ISBN 9780521567794
  4. ↑ "John Augustus Oriel CBE MC: 1955—1957", Presidents, Institution of Chemical Engineers , retrieved 19 January 2020
  5. ↑ Neild, Robert (2012), The Financial History of Cambridge University, Thames River Press, p. 50, ISBN 9780857285157
  6. ↑ See, e.g., Maguire, Kevin (5 December 2000), "University accepts tobacco 'blood money': Outrage as Nottingham takes £3.8m in funding from BAT", The Guardian; "Body politic wasted by corporate virus (review of Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain)", Times Higher Education, 4 May 2001; Monbiot, George (March 2003), "Guard dogs of perception: The corporate takeover of science", Science and Engineering Ethics, 9 (1): 49–57, doi:10.1007/s11948-003-0019-8; Feldman, Paul; Lotz, Corinna (2004), A World to Win: A Rough Guide to a Future Without Global Capitalism, Lupus Books, p. 145, ISBN 9780952345411
  7. ↑ Shell professor, Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, 5 August 2004, retrieved 18 January 2020
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