40 years of chemical engineering at COPPE

40 years of chemical engineering at COPPE

A.Claudio Habert

Professor, COPPE/UFRJ. E-mail: [e-mail], www.peq.coppe.ufrj.br

In a continental developing country like Brazil, with much heterogeneity and many contrasts, where 170 millions inhabitants share the modern and the old ways, very basic social and economic problems still remain to be managed and eventually, solved. The republican regime is less than 115 years old, and the consolidation of a nation with established and respected democratic institutional powers has been a complex endeavor. In this context, celebrating the coming of age of any public institution, particularly university institutions, represents much more than a festive occasion.

Although a couple of engineering schools were established more than a century ago, the oldest universities (and the first chemical engineering undergraduate course) date of the 1920's. Our national supporting agencies, CNPq and CAPES, are 50 years old. Considering that most of our academic institutions are relatively young, the actual generation of researchers is in fact making history as it builds and consolidates the foundations of a modern teaching and research system.

These remarks come to mind when one reflects on the 40 years of foundation of PEQ-Programa de Engenharia Química, the original nucleus of COPPE (Coordenação de Programas de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia), a brainchild of Prof. Alberto Coimbra. In march 1963, he launched a M.Sc. program in chemical engineering in the University of Brazil (today, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro). A quiet cultural revolution was beginning in the University as fulltime (and, at that time, with attractive higher salaries) faculty staff with Ph.D. degrees were hired, while others were sent abroad to complete their advanced education. Under the leadership of Prof. Coimbra, who was always seeking excellence in teaching and research, and a strong emphasis in the engineering sciences, COPPE grew very quickly and managed to consolidate 12 graduate engineering programs leading to M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees. It soon achieved continental recognition and attracted academics and students from all Brazilian regions, as well as from other Latin-american neighbors and became a successful model. (For a recent account, one can refer to "Alberto Coimbra e a COPPE" by G. Massarani et al., Ed. Paralelo 15/Capes, Brasilia, 2002). Granting 400 MSc. and DSc. degrees every year (the total number of graduates to this date reaches almost 8.000), COPPE is among the largest engineering graduate schools of the southern hemisphere, with a faculty of about 300 Ph.D’s and 2500 graduate students enrolled, adding up their experience to contribute for the scientific and technological needs of a country with such a diversified range of problems.

Academic graduate education in chemical engineering was established aiming at needs of expanding sectors such as oil refineries and petrochemical industries. The university system also grew in the 1960’s and 1970's, hiring many young faculties. Placing always a strong emphasis on the fundamentals of thermodynamics, transport phenomena, reactor kinetics and separation processes (along with computational mathematics), interactions with industries led to diversification of research subjects, reaching today a wide exploration of topics such as optimization and control, biotechnology, natural and synthetic materials, catalysis, environmental protection, etc. One could remark that this result was long due and deserved for a country rich of energy sources and raw materials, although the goal (and challenge) of innovation is yet to be fully developed. As we know, many internal and external factors intervene in this process, whereas a strong scientific-based manpower is a mandatory requirement. Concerning chemical engineering, the several established Brazilian graduate programs worked intensively to consolidate a tradition in this country. Progress in recent years show a significant increase in national scientific productivity as measured by the numbers of post-graduates and the rate of publications in indexed scientific journals, ranking chemical engineering the highest among the engineering programs.

Contributions to much of this success can be traced to (and catalyzed by) the now 40-year-old PEQ/COPPE, which has been considered as a historic paradigm, as it has reached a remarkable position, setting standards in the field. To date, about 750 MSc and DSc degrees have been granted by PEQ to graduates that are now working in the most diversified sectors of academia, industry and government. Its consolidated research groups have reached national and international recognition, maintaining, since the beginning of evaluation of post-graduate programs, the top ranking at CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, the support and regulating agency of the Ministry of Education): PEQ was first to reach the maximum score 7, a unique achievement among chemical engineering programs. Many of its faculty members have received national and international awards. A strong academic interaction (continental and overseas) and an intensive joint cooperative research program led to significant contributions to industrial developments (in sectors such as chemicals and petrochemicals, food products, agriculture, energy) as well as to pollution control. PEQ has also offered a pioneer on-line short-course program through the Internet.

Chemical engineering is expanding its horizons, as we witness a cross-fertilization of knowledge in and from many areas, that will certainly allow new approaches, both theoretical and applied. In addition, organization and diffusion of research (through publications and participation in scientific meetings), as well as the access to information sources, has also grown dramatically among us in the past 10 years. This is the base for interactions among individuals and groups, and must be continuously fostered. In a much more interdependent world, new challenges arise as a reorganization of the industry is being shaped, trade and labor relationships are reviewed, and a fast growing tertiary sector of the economy becomes a reality. Our community has therefore quite large responsibilities in increasing the amount and quality of cooperative research that will provide a better understanding and help to solve the regional and global problems that affect our society.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Mar 2004
• Date of issue
  Sept 2003