Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas
A Centennial History, 1902—2002

Michael S. Martin

One hundred years ago the University of Arkansas announced course offerings leading to a degree in chemical engineering. Bauxite had just been discovered in central Arkansas and had sparked dreams of great mineral wealth yet to be discovered and exploited. This book traces the history of chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas. But it is more; it is a history of people—students and teachers, first in the Department of Chemistry and eventually in the Department of of Chemical Engineering. It tells of Professors Muckenfuss, Carroll, and Guy; of Harrison Hale and Edgar Wertheim; of Colonel Maurice Barker and Jim Turpin and the hundreds of students whose lives they touched. It is the story of how two world wars impacted the U of A campus; of the Razorbacks—in victory and defeat; of how Gamma Chi, the local chemistry fraternity, became a chapter of alpha Chi Sigma; of how women and minority students increasingly entered the field; and of the department preparing to enter its second century.