Chemical engineering started to become a recognized profession when formal chemical engineering education was developed. There were courses in industrial chemistry and other areas of chemistry, but none which specifically tackled chemical engineering concepts.
The world’s first four-year curriculum in chemical engineering was developed in 1888 by Lewis M. Norton, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was inspired both by the advancement of the German chemical process industry and by Davis’ lecture series.
Norton died in 1893 having seen students graduate from his program. The first class had seven graduates. Frank H. Thorpe took over the program and worked to refine it. In 1898, he published the first chemical engineering textbook: Outlines of Industrial Chemistry. While Davis is viewed as the father of the discipline of chemical engineering, Norton and Thorpe can be considered to be the fathers of chemical engineering education.
The first publication dedicated to chemical engineering, The Chemical Engineer, came about in 1903. This publication included articles on industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. In 1908, the first association dedicated to chemical engineering, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was formed after members of the American Chemical Society recognized the need for a separate association for chemical engineers. When the Institute was formed, it had fewer than 1,000 members; today, it has more than 60,000 members.
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