Professor Doug Lloyd Retires
Doug Lloyd, the Henry Beckman Professor in Chemical Engineering, retired January 15, 2014 after 33 years of teaching and service to the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering.
After joining the department in 1981, Lloyd served as associate chairman and undergraduate advisor in addition to serving the Cockrell School of Engineering as associate dean. He has taught more than 4,500 undergraduate students and supervised 22 Ph.D. dissertations and 29 master’s theses. He also supervised 30 undergraduate research assistants and 15 visiting scientists.
During his career, Lloyd also spent time as a visiting scientist at 3M Company, Baxter Healthcare and McMaster University. Lloyd and his colleagues have published 143 refereed journal articles and he has edited three books.
Lloyd’s dedication to education has earned him numerous student-initiated awards from the department, college, and university- including the department’s TEAChE Award for excellence in teaching this fall. He will be missed by students, but his influence will live on through those he has mentored.
“Doug Lloyd is a sincere, committed teacher,” said Professor Emeritus Jim Stice. “He likes his students and they like him. And, he likes his subject matter and spends considerable time thinking about how best to present the material. He also spent a lot of time as our undergraduate advisor. It’s not surprising that he was the recipient of the TEAChE award in December.
“His teaching, research and service to the chemical engineering discipline have been noteworthy – he has been a valuable and tireless contributor to the stature of our department.”
Lloyd was one of three signatures on the documents founding the North American Membrane Society, for which he served on the Board of Directors for twelve years. He also served on the Board of Directors for the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc., American Chemical Society Books, National Water Research Institute, Journal of Porous Materials, AIChE Education Projects Committee, and Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon.
“I have known Doug for more than thirty years, and I have appreciated the contributions he has made to our department,” said Professor Nicholas A. Peppas, the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering. “He was one of the early leaders of the membrane science world. His pioneering contributions, such as his 1997 seminal work on “Membrane Distillation” (J. Membrane Science), have remained standard references in our field. His methods based on thermally-induced phase separation led to new ways of preparing microporous membranes.
“Doug has also remained one of my generation’s true educators in chemical engineering. He has taught a wide range of courses, always with concern for the students but also setting high standards of student performance. His leadership and friendship will be missed.”
Lloyd helped pave the way for thousands of undergraduates’ success by teaching CHE 317: Introduction to Chemical Engineering. He also taught the milestone course CHE 353: Transport Phenomena.
“Not only did Doug fine-tune his presentation of complex topics with a combination of physical context and mathematical analyses, but he also established high expectations for student performance and held students accountable,” said Associate Professor Jennifer Maynard, the Laurence E. McMakin, Jr. Centennial Fellow in Chemical Engineering. “His approach helped produce the high quality of UT Austin chemical engineering graduates sought after by industry and graduate schools.”
When he received the Senate of College Councils’ Professor of the Month Award in 2012, he explained how he considers himself more of an educator, rather than a teacher. He believes teachers transfer skills and knowledge to students, but educators stimulate students to think and learn for themselves.
“Doug helped shape the way that thousands of talented young adults think about the world,” said Department Chair Tom Truskett. “Not only by teaching them how to frame and solve engineering problems, but also to appreciate the opportunities and responsibilities that come along with being an engineer. We are thankful for his service and wish him all the best in his retirement.”
Throughout a career full of achievements and numerous honors, Lloyd says he is probably most proud of having received the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from The University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada where he received his Ph.D. He plans to spend much of his time after retirement playing his guitar, taking photographs, and traveling.
From Dr. Lloyd’s students
“Dr. Lloyd has a reputation that precedes him – he is known among the undergraduates as one of the toughest professors in ChE but also one of the very best. Transport is one of the foundational courses on which the rest of ChE builds, so a good instructor is important. Dr. Lloyd encouraged us to look beyond simply doing the correct math and arriving at the correct answer and see the physicality of the problem. This helped me to develop an approach to engineering problems that begins with understanding the physical system rather than attempting to force every problem into a set of memorized mathematical constructs. That approach to problem solving is so critical to engineering, and Dr. Lloyd’s Transport class fostered that approach very early in my undergraduate career. As I TA in graduate school, I hope that I can adapt many of Dr. Lloyd’s teaching strategies and share the wisdom he shared with me to my students.” —Julie Fogarty, B.S. ChE ’13
“I took Transport from Dr. Lloyd back in fall 2010. To this day, it has been my favorite class that I’ve ever taken in college. His Transport course was the first class to challenge me to think critically about difficult problems. His methodical approach to teaching and problem solving made complex Transport concepts easier to understand, and his high expectations for his students compelled us to work harder. I had the pleasure of being his TA for Transport in fall 2011, and Dr. Lloyd became more of a mentor to me, giving me advice about my teaching skills in order to better communicate difficult concepts to students. As a result, Dr. Lloyd has had a huge influence on my decision to go to graduate school and to hopefully become a professor one day. He is the consummate professor: an excellent and inspiring teacher, an amazing researcher, and a caring mentor. “ —Mikey Phan, B.S. ChE ’13
“I am proud to have been one of Doug Lloyd’s Ph.D. students. His teaching methods had a tremendous influence on how I think. I’m thankful for his service, guidance, but most of all his friendship. I wish him the best for the future.”—Ken McGuire, B.S. ChE ’92, M.S. ChE ’94, Ph.D. ChE ’95
“I’m very proud to have been one of Doug’s 30 undergraduate research mentees and to have played a part in one of his 147 publications. I extend my thanks for everything he’s done for the department and all of his students. Now I hope he has fun playing guitar and taking pictures!“—Michael Caplan, B.S. ChE ’97
“I thank Doug for how he helped me learn about teaching, research, and mentoring students at all levels, and for the example he set demonstrating the importance of maintaining diverse interests in all parts of life. I wish him all the best in retirement.”—Stephen Thiel, M.S. ChE ’83, Ph.D. ChE ’86
“In 1972, when I was the new faculty member at University of Waterloo ChE, Professor Jim Ford told me there was this guy, Doug Lloyd, who was in one of my classes, that I should hire to introduce him to academic research and encourage him to consider an academic career. I did, and for the life of me I can’t remember what it is he did, but, the meta-motive obviously worked. That one term’s salary has given the ChE world one very fine researcher, and the snowball effect of a fine educator, who has turned who knows how many others on to critical thinking and not tolerating sloppy work from themselves or others. And the best part was, we became and continue to be friends, and I am very proud to know Doug and have him in my life.”—Gerry Mueller, professor, The University of Waterloo
Tags: chemical engineering, Doug Lloyd, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, retires, UT Austin