Warren Kendall Lewis (21 August 1882-9 March 1975) was an MIT professor who has been called the father of modern chemical engineering. He co-authored an early major textbook on the subject which essentially introduced the concept of unit operations. He also co-developed the Houdry process under contract to The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) into modern fluid catalytic cracking with Edwin R. Gilliland, another MIT professor.
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Warren Kendall Lewis (21 August 1882-9 March 1975) was an MIT professor who has been called the father of modern chemical engineering. He co-authored an early major textbook on the subject which essentially introduced the concept of unit operations. He also co-developed the Houdry process under contract to The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) into modern fluid catalytic cracking with Edwin R. Gilliland, another MIT professor.
Lewis was born in Laurel, Delaware on 21 August 1882 and went to MIT to study engineering. He took the chemical engineering option from the Department of Chemistry, which so engaged him that he went for postgraduate study of physical chemistry in Breslau, Germany, receiving the degree of DSc in 1908. Shortly after, he published a paper on "The Theory of Fractional Distillation" which was the basis for subsequent chemical engineering calculation methods. (He later authored 19 patents on distillation.) After some industrial experience as a...
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