Donald L. Katz
The information listed below is current as of the date the transcript was finalized.
Interview Details
Interview Sessions
Abstract of Interview
The late Donald Katz starts the interview by briefly referring to his current projects but then describes his family background and his genealogical interests, stimulated by his 1952 trip to his father's birthplace in a German village. Katz went to a small country school in rural Michigan but was encouraged by a church minister to attend high school in a nearby town. After working in a machine shop, Katz entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and majored in chemical engineering. He put himself through college by hard effort; cleaning offices, restaurant work and some summers back in machine shops. As he continued into graduate studies, Donald Katz acted as George Brown's assistant, helping other graduate students and junior faculty, and with patent cases. He recalls courses, coworkers and faculty at Ann Arbor and gives three anecdotes illustrating the influence of surface chemistry, as taught by Floyd Bartell, at later stages of Katz's career. When Katz started his research career at Phillips Petroleum he was assigned to reservoir studies and he summarizes some of his activities during this period. An invitation by Brown brought Katz back to the University of Michigan and he details his early researches and consulting work. The war years altered some of his teaching and research responsibilities and led him, for instance, into heat transfer investigations. On Brown's promotion to Dean, Katz took over as departmental chairman for several years. During this part of the interview Donald Katz describes his involvement in the introduction of computer education into the chemical engineering curriculum, both at Ann Arbor and nationally. Other recollections follow: safety and the hazards of bulk chemicals; pipelines; the underground storage of gas and air; the origins of the Handbook of Natural Gas Engineering. Katz concludes his interview with some thoughts on the changes in the academic chemical engineering profession over his long career.
Education
Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
---|---|---|---|
1931 | University of Michigan | BSE | Chemical Engineering |
1932 | University of Michigan | MS | Chemical Engineering |
1933 | University of Michigan | PhD | Chemical Engineering |
Professional Experience
Phillips Petroleum Company
University of Michigan
Honors
Year(s) | Award |
---|---|
1950 | Hanlon Award, Gas Processors Association |
1959 | President, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
1959 | Michigan Engineer of the Year, Society of Petroleum Engineers |
1962 | Distingushed Lecturer, Society of Petroleum Engineers |
1963 | Visiting Professor, National School of Chemistry, Rio de Janeiro |
1964 | John Franklin Carll Award, Society of Petroleum Engineers |
1964 | Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, University of Michigan |
1964 | Founders Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
1967 | Warren K. Lewis Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
1968 | Member, National Academy of Engineering |
1968 | William H. Walker Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
1969 | Honorary Member, Phi Lambda Upsilon |
1970 | Mineral Industries Award, American Institute of Mining Engineers |
1972 | Distinguished Public Service Award, U. S. Coast Guard |
1975 | Murphree Award, American Chemical Society |
1977 | Gas Industry Research Award, American Gas Association |
1978 | Lucas Gold Medal, American Institute of Mining Engineers |
1979 | Award of Merit, Michigan Historical Society |
1983 | Selected as an Eminent Chemical Engineer, 75th Anniversary of American Institute of Chemical Engineers |
1983 | National Medal of Science |
1984 | Designated Distinguished Member, Society of Petroleum Engineers |
1986 | Honorary Member, American Institute of Mining Engineer |
Table of Contents
Family background. Genealogical interests stimulated by 1952 trip the father's German birthplace. Sibling, stepfather. Attendance at country school, encouragement to continue on to high school. Work in machine shop.
Admission to University and extramural employment as office cleaner, restaurant worker and summers in the machine shop. First car and tour of North Dakota. Assistant to George Granger Brown, laboratory studies on distillation, some related to patent cases. PhD research. Courses and faculty at Michigan. Influence of Bartell and his teaching of surface chemistry; anecdotes on surface chemical applications useful to Katz in his career. Further discussion of chemical engineering at University of Michigan in 1930s. Effect of the Depression, especially on fellow students.
The laboratories at Bartlesville, initial assignments on oil reservoirs. Set up of field well testing unit. Organization of Phillips research activities.
Return to Ann Arbor as assistant professor, beginning research projects and outside consulting. The bibliography on PVT properties of hydrocarbons. Summer work in industry. Early graduate students; fatal accident to one of them. War years at the University, changed teaching responsibilities and research interests. Safety concerns. Properties of liquid metals, work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Successor to Brown as departmental chairman, further reminiscences of Brown. Changes in the chemical engineering curriculum; impact of computational studies. Ford Foundation funding for the introduction of computer education into chemical engineering. Origins of the Handbook of Natural Gas Engineering. Consulting on pipelines. Sabbatical in South America. Safety procedures and the hazards of transportation of chemical substances. Underground storage of gas and air. Changes in the chemical engineering profession.
About the Interviewer
James J. Bohning was professor emeritus of chemistry at Wilkes University, where he had been a faculty member from 1959 to 1990. He served there as chemistry department chair from 1970 to 1986 and environmental science department chair from 1987 to 1990. Bohning was chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry in 1986; he received the division’s Outstanding Paper Award in 1989 and presented more than forty papers at national meetings of the society. Bohning was on the advisory committee of the society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program from its inception in 1992 through 2001 and is currently a consultant to the committee. He developed the oral history program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and he was CHF’s director of oral history from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Bohning was a science writer for the News Service group of the American Chemical Society. In May 2005, he received the Joseph Priestley Service Award from the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. Bohning passed away in September 2011.