In Memoriam of Professor Duncan M. Fraser

In Memoriam

Duncan M. Fraser

1946–2014

The global chemical engineering community lost an important scholar on 19 July 2014. This special issue in Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability (PIOS) is to celebrate the influence and contribution of Professor Duncan McKenzie Fraser, particularly in process integration and engineering education.

Emeritus Professor Fraser graduated with a first-class honour’s degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in Chemical Engineering in 1968, with his PhD in turbulent air flow in 1976 from the same institution. After working 3 years at Caltex refinery in Cape Town, he began working as an academic at UCT in 1979. For 35 years, Duncan was an academic at the University, where he became Emeritus Professor in 2012. Duncan was internationally recognized for his high-quality research contributions in the areas of process integration, process synthesis, and engineering education.

In his engineering research, Prof. Fraser was an early adopter of process integration, develo** new approaches to heat and mass exchanger network synthesis. A paper published with his former PhD student, Dr. Nick Hallalle, entitled “Capital Cost Targets for Mass Exchange Networks. A Special Case: Water Minimization” in Chemical Engineering Science (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2509(97)00191-7) is still one of the most highly-cited papers in mass exchanger network synthesis literature. According to Scopus, Prof. Fraser published 72 papers since 1999, with over 1700 citations and an h-index of 26. His research outputs were co-authored with authors from 19 countries, demonstrating his impressive international impact.

In engineering education, Duncan was instrumental in develo** engineering pedagogical research at UCT. He was a founding member of the Centre for Research in Engineering Education (CREE) at UCT, also serving for a term as its Director, and was internationally recognized for his education research. In 2002, Duncan and co-authors were awarded the best paper award for their paper in Chemical Engineering Education entitled “The Challenges of Promoting and Assessing for Conceptual Understanding in Chemical Engineering” (https://journals.flvc.org/cee/article/view/122904). Prof Fraser was on the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) Board and was president elect of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).

Perhaps Duncan’s greatest legacy is his impact in curriculum development in the Chemical Engineering Department at UCT in South Africa, where he contributed to develo** an inclusive, collaborative, and diverse academic environment in a complex post-apartheid South Africa. In a society with great economic and educational inequalities, Duncan innovated curriculum revisions and new methods for teaching in collaborative student-centric ways, to build a more inclusive curriculum. Through these innovations, students from both privileged and historically disadvantaged backgrounds benefited, hel** to build a more diverse technical workforce in the develo** rainbow nation. He is fondly remembered by the many cohorts that were taught by him.

The papers in this special issue hence represent the main areas of Duncan’s scientific contribution, i.e. process integration and engineering education. The authors of these papers are mostly his ex-PhD students and colleagues in the scientific community.

Tribute to Duncan M. Fraser

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Adeniyi J. Isafiade

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa

I first met Duncan in September 2004 when I arrived Cape Town to commence my PhD study under his supervision at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to meeting him physically, I had interacted with him through email and over the phone. I was amazed by Duncan’s caring fatherly attitude, humility, friendliness, and simplicity. His caring attitude was demonstrated in various ways such as picking me up from the airport, advising me on where to shop for clothing to save money, and assisting me with settling in the accommodation he already arranged before my arrival. Duncan made it easy for me to blend in with my new life in Cape Town.

With Duncan being a specialist in engineering education research, he was no doubt a great supervisor. As the supervisor of my PhD, he gave me the freedom to stir the direction of my project and provided timeous and constructive feedback to my work. He was always available for meetings and apologized whenever he had to reschedule. After the completion of my PhD study, Duncan was more than glad to host me as a postdoctoral fellow. In October 2009, Duncan and I became colleagues at the same department where I obtained my PhD. The support he gave me as a young academic played a key role in my growth over the years. I remember vividly well how he supported my application for the University of Cape Town funding for academics to visit institutions outside the country to learn the use of highly specialized equipment. I applied to visit Prof. Zdravko Kravanja at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, whom Duncan had introduced me to, and my application was successful. That first visit to Maribor, of which Duncan facilitated, played a significant role in my growth as an academic because it paved the way for me to establish my first international research collaboration with Prof Kravanja’s research group. The collaboration, which is still active, has resulted in several publications in high impact factor journals and conference proceedings. It has also resulted in funding acquisitions and MSc and PhD graduates. The first large chunk of research funds I secured from the National Research Foundation of South Africa was through Duncan inviting me as a collaborator in a project where he was the principal investigator. Apart from research, Duncan also made my settling down as an academic smooth in the teaching space by giving me his lecture materials. Indeed, Prof Duncan Mackenzie Fraser has made a significant impact in my career, and I am very grateful to him.

Tribute to Duncan M. Fraser

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Michael Short

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey, UK

I first met Duncan in my first year of undergraduate education at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2008. In my second year, Duncan taught me heat transfer, where I was first introduced to the concepts of heat integration and process optimisation. His teaching of the concepts of increasing efficiency from existing processes to minimize environmental impacts and save money simultaneously, was transformative for me. His enthusiasm and clarity in explanation gave me the “a-ha” moment I needed to realise that chemical engineering was something truly worthwhile. The emphasis on groupwork throughout the chemical engineering curriculum at UCT, which I later learnt was an innovation of Duncan’s, was a formative experience for me and one that I often look back fondly on. Working closely with colleagues from different cultural, language, economic, and religious backgrounds, at a young age, through these collaborations, helped me to grow in many ways, and the friendships formed during these sessions survive to this day, with my many successful colleagues across South Africa and the world.

When doing my final-year Honour’s research project (on process integration, of course!), I worked together with Duncan and Prof. Adeniyi Isafiade (Niyi), where they taught me mathematical optimisation and the fundamentals of research methods. After giving me my first taste of research, I decided to join Duncan and Niyi, as their joint PhD student, working on process synthesis of bioenergy. My weekly meetings were always filled with insights from Duncan, and his humanity and curiosity were inspirational. Duncan always took a caring approach with his students, taking an interest in their personal lives, and sharing stories from his travels, family, and church life. Duncan was a keen runner and always encouraged a balanced work and personal life, which I have attempted to emulate in my own group.

Throughout our 3 years working together in the areas of process synthesis and optimisation, he gave me ample room to explore the field, encouraging my curiosity, and allowing me to pose my own questions and ideas without judgement. His extensive research network and his personal relationships with distinguished researchers in the field allowed me to obtain important international experience in Slovenia and Brazil.

In the second year of my PhD in Duncan’s group, he suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. At his funeral, I learnt of his wider impact in the community, beyond his contributions at UCT, where he was a beloved and devoted father and husband and active in a vibrant church community. Without his enthusiasm for Chemical Engineering, his inclusive teaching and management style, and his guidance, I would not be where I am today. He is sadly missed, but his memory and legacy live on.

Tribute to Duncan M. Fraser

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Nick Hallale

AVEVA, Manchester, United Kingdom

Duncan Fraser was the first exposure I had to “real” chemical engineering in my first year at UCT (1992). Back in those days, the first year curriculum was almost entirely made up of science courses, and there was virtually no chemical engineering content. The proper chemical engineering stuff—courses beginning with the hallowed “CHE” prefix, and located in the mysterious chemical engineering building itself—only came in the second year.

However, we did have a small project run by Duncan towards the end of that year, and this involved designing a heat exchanger network to minimise energy costs for a chemical plant. We had no idea of the existence of pinch technology back then, and so the whole thing was a trial-and-error exercise. It did, however, spark my fascination with the topic—an interest that was to resurface several years later.

I was very young at the time, but I do also remember being struck by his gentle, supportive, and modest nature. Good teaching is not something that everyone can do, and unfortunately, some compensate by being arrogant and unapproachable, but Duncan was very different. During the rest of my undergraduate degree, I had a few courses that were taught by him, but only started to work closely with him after graduation. My interest in the area of process synthesis and pinch technology had only grown stronger, and so I asked to join his research group in 1996.

Duncan was a world-class expert in the process integration and pinch technology, who had put his own mark on the subject, and had published some renowned papers on energy integration. I was very eager to do the same, and together we helped extend the field into mass exchange network design. This had some interesting applications such as wastewater reduction and pollution prevention in the minerals processing industry. We worked really well together, and I think he was the perfect supervisor, giving me all the freedom I needed, but still providing an overarching steer.

I’m also grateful that he encouraged me to publish early, and so between 1996 and 1998, we already had a string of journal articles in print. It made my thesis write-up very simple, because it was effectively an exercise in collating all the material I’d already written, giving it a table of contents, and putting it in a nice binder. He also encouraged me to present at conferences early and supported my first international conference attendance, which was AIChE 1997 in Los Angeles. Back then, I had never travelled outside South Africa, and it was a huge experience, both professionally and personally.

It was only after I had received a PhD and started working as a lecturer myself that I truly appreciated how good he was as both a lecturer and a research supervisor. Neither is an easy task, and I was nowhere near to being in his league. Something else I only really appreciated much later in life was his devotion to improving engineering education. He quietly devoted much of his career to making things better for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa, and who may otherwise have been denied the opportunity to study engineering. In his typical modest way, he had been working largely behind the scenes in this field, and I don’t think that many of us were truly aware of what a giant he was. It is very gratifying to see that his pioneering efforts are now fully flowering and that he is receiving the recognition he always deserved.

The last time I saw him was in 2011, on a visit to UCT. He showed me around the new chemical engineering building, and we had an interesting chat about the state of the art in process synthesis. Like everyone else, I was extremely shocked and saddened to learn that he had suddenly passed away in 2014. Our community owes him a lot.

Tribute to Duncan M. Fraser

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Dominic C. Y. Foo

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering/Centre of Excellence for Green Technologies

University of Nottingham Malaysia

I first met Duncan Fraser in year 2001, when I was doing my MSc at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Duncan was on his way to Thailand for a vacation and had a long transit at Singapore. Since UTM is only an hour journey from Singapore Changi airport, I travelled to the airport with university transport to fetch him back to give us a seminar on mass exchanger network synthesis. It was rather a new knowledge to most people in this region, as many were only aware of heat exchanger network and heat integration. His talk received overwhelming responses from the audience. What surprised me was that, he brought me the PhD thesis of Nick Hallale (final draft) which has the latest state-of-the-art technique on mass exchanger network synthesis that time. To me, that is one of the best “souvenir” I have gotten in years.

A year later, Duncan came back to Malaysia and delivered a hands-on workshop on process integration at Kuala Lumpur. He then came on a regular basis to join us in various conferences and talks. One of such event was the inaugural Sustainable Process Integration (SPI) Forum that was held at Genting Highland in late June 2013 (immediately after PSE Asia 2013; Figs. 1 and 2). I believe many process integration academics in Malaysia (who were PhD students back then) had good interactions with Duncan as he always gave good suggestions to their presentation.

Fig. 1

Duncan Fraser posing a question during question and answer session of SPI Forum (June 2013)

Fig. 2

Duncan Fraser participating in an SPI Forum at Genting Highland (June 2013)

Tribute to Duncan M. Fraser

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Jennifer M. Case

Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech, USA

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town (honorary professor)

No prophet is accepted in his home country. I think this biblical quote applies really well to Duncan’s career in engineering education, where he had the visionary foresight of a prophet and the fortitude to push on with what he knew was right, even if the recognition only came much later, especially in relation to his “home country” of UCT. I worked closely with Duncan for nearly two decades and was incredibly formed by his mentorship, and even I only fully appreciated his incredible contribution and impact much too late, after his untimely death. The reformed and highly relevant undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum at UCT stands as a concrete testament to his vision, as we outline in our article in this special issue. But internationally, Duncan’s work was recognized from early on as ground-breaking, in a newly emerging field that only started finding its footing especially in the USA in the 1990s. One indication of this is that Duncan was one of only four “International Pioneers” interviewed for a prominent National Science Fellowship (NSF) project documenting biographies of early leaders in the field of engineering education research (EER). Another indication was the decision of the journal Chemical Engineering Education to feature him in their ChE Educator series (see Case 2007), again an honour that few outside the USA have received. Recently, someone told me of Duncan’s rather assertive response to a conference question suggesting that South Africans might have much to learn from US engineering education, but not vice versa—he quickly put them straight, outlining the ground-breaking developments already underway at UCT.

Duncan loved travel and was particularly engaged with supporting engineering educators elsewhere on the African continent and in Southeast Asia. It is now nearly a decade since we lost him, and still, I have people spontaneously seeking me out to tell me about his impact on their work. He loved people as much as he loved travel, and he was always warm and encouraging to anyone who was trying to build in more student-focused approaches in their programmes and in their teaching.

As I said above, I only really appreciated Duncan’s impact on my career when it was too late to tell this to him. He was a brilliant man and a really serious academic. He had been instrumental in setting up the Caltex Education Development Officer position in the department that I came into in 1996. As a new academic, he taught me about presenting at conferences, develo** work into journal articles and sourcing research funding. Figure 3 shows the two of us with final year research students at a poster session. He was meticulous in attention to detail. He was also a wonderful support as I took on teaching first and second year chemical engineering even though my undergraduate degree was in chemistry and physics. I learnt a lot of chemical engineering fundamentals in a just-in-time manner, and I hope this was not too obvious to the students—often I would say “what a great question, let me tackle that in tomorrow’s lecture” and then rush to Duncan’s office later in that day for a tutorial. He had time for people. He always had time.

Fig. 3

Jennifer Case (most left) and Duncan Fraser, along with undergraduate students Roseanna Martin and Bryan Maytham in a final year poster presentation session

He also made me laugh, a lot! He was his own man, very eccentric in the most delightful way. He generously took me to engineering education conferences on his own research funds before I had mine, and there are so many hilarious travel tales that ensued, including the time, in the days before cellphones, when we got separated in a Warsaw train station, and I got to Budapest a day before him, with all his luggage and no foreign currency (I am still puzzling how that happened) He was also completely unflappable, which is why we could laugh forever about this story and many more.

I remember Duncan with much fondness. He was bold and innovative and deeply thoughtful. He cared deeply about building the next generation of chemical engineers in his beloved South Africa. His impact is immense and lives on.