The Ruckenstein Fund
Our department has recently initiated an effort to establish The Ruckenstein Fund as an endowment to recognize and honor Professor Eli Ruckenstein, whose contributions to the Department will be felt for generations to come.
And truly, Eli's accomplishments are staggering. He has authored over 1000 refereed journal articles in every conceivable area of interest to chemical engineering (including thermodynamics, transport, catalysis, materials, and bioengineering). Remarkably, a graph of his productivity versus age, starting from age 60 and covering the past 20 years, has a positive slope!
Funds generated from this endowment will be used to in two ways.
- Support the Ruckenstein Lecture series. Many in the department know Eli best from his participation in our weekly seminars, where his intellect and encyclopedic memory are consistently on display during the question-and-answer sessions. Eli has for a long time been the coordinator of the seminar series, and so it is fitting that we honor his name with an annual lecture dedicated to him. Each year this lecture will be delivered by one of the leading figures in chemical engineering.
- Support teaching and research laboratories. Eli is a prolific researcher who is equally at ease in theoretical and experimental investigations, and his work in each direction is reinforced by the other. Consequently he recognizes the importance of a good laboratory, and what can be accomplished with high-quality, modern equipment. Accordingly we use this fund to help support our undergraduate and graduate laboratories.
As an added incentive for our alumni and friends to contribute to this drive, the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has for a limited time committed to a dollar-for-dollar match of all contributions to the Ruckenstein Fund, up to a total of $50,000. So any contributions made to the fund will be doubled!