Giving

A new world is coming for chemical engineering education.

The face of chemical engineering is changing, and we seek to mold that change for the common good. The department is building new efforts in areas of crucial societal need such as energy and sustainability, bioprocessing and nanotechnology.

We also have a vision for creating a new kind of chemical engineering graduate who can grasp the opportunities now offered by the globalization of the economic marketplace. Such graduates need understanding and direct experience of this "flattened" world. To implement that vision, the department is now constructing new programs in collabortion with the College of Business that will enhance the savvy of our graduates regarding technological competition on the world stage. Other new programs are also in the works.

The faculty is enthusiastic about the possibilities of this vision, and recognizes that our efforts represent the leading edge of internationalized education. However, the programs we have in mind require front-end investment before the longer-term payoff. Here are some of the investment needs:

1. Endowment for faculty. The trip to Shanghai is roughly 24 hours from Urbana. Many such trips are needed for program building. Many of my colleagues would love to engage in this effort, but worry about the impact on their ability to write grant proposals. Faculty professorships and chairs provide a revenue stream to free up the time needed to build programs.
2. Annual revenue for program development and management. Building a new overseas program typically requires several forms of one-time startup investment. For example, a professor may need a semester of release time from teaching to organize the program; thus, an instructor must be hired to fill the gap. Or a professor from the foreign university may need to visit Urbana for a few weeks or months to help organize the program, with expenses associated with the travel. The new program also requires intense management: travel expenses for overseas travel, and an additional support staff member to organize the complicated logistics.
3. Support for graduate students studying overseas. Our experience is that relationships on the department level with universities overseas begin with research at the graduate level, followed by new opportunities for undergraduate study. Several faculty in the department have nascent research connections at foreign universities that could serve as perfect seeds for such department-level relationships. Many graduate students in the department would leap at the opportunity for such a study experience. However, there is no good mechanism to fund the student stipend, travel, and research expenses. Annual revenue, or better yet endowed fellowships, would fill this gap.

You can play a vital role in helping to implement this vision. The generosity of our alumni and friends has long been a linchpin of the department's success. I invite you to support our efforts through a donation as indicated below. If your company participates in a matching gift program, you can double or even triple the impact of your generosity.

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