In its 100-year history, no one has had more impact on chemical engineering at UQ than the late Robert John ‘Gus’ Wiles AM.
A chemical engineering degree, then known as a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, was first offered at UQ in 1916 – decades before any other Australian university.
One of UQ’s original four professors and first president of the University’s Professorial Board, Professor Bertram Dillon Steele, was influential in establishing the degree.
He envisaged a course that could serve all of Australia, including studies assisting in the development of industries new to the country.
The four-year degree was part of the Walter and Eliza Hall School of Applied Chemistry, which opened in 1917.
Of the few students who enrolled in the course in 1917, Ernest Stewart Edmiston, was the only one to complete all the requirements, graduating in 1921.
Besides the study of unit operations and processes (together with the appropriate science foundation of mathematics, chemistry and physics), the course included first-year geology with economic geology and physical metallurgy, as well as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering subjects.
The course also included areas of economics, law and psychology.
Today, the School sets a benchmark for educational change at a national and international level. It has a five-star rating in the QS World University Rankings by subject and is ranked as one of the top 50 of its kind globally.
The School boasts more than 600 undergraduate students (39 per cent of whom are female), more than 180 PhD students, and is a recognised national and international leader in chemical engineering with excellent fundamental and industry-applied research.
For more information about the School of Chemical Engineering, visit chemeng.uq.edu.au.
A century of leadership
1910: Professor Bertram Dillon Steele is appointed Head of Chemistry at UQ.
1916: A course leading to a bachelor degree, including ‘chemical engineering’ in its title, is first offered at UQ.
1921: Ernest Stewart Edmiston is the first student to graduate from a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering degree at UQ.
1950: School of Applied Chemistry moves from George Street to St Lucia. The St Lucia building is named after Professor Steele.
1950: Valeria Blakey (nee Blagonravoff) becomes the first woman to graduate in chemical engineering at UQ.
1959: ‘Gus’ Wiles graduates from UQ.
1966: Lecturer Jim Howarth is awarded a PhD, the first in chemical engineering at UQ.
1967: Wiles begins working as a demonstrator in chemical engineering.
1975: Sir Russell Drysdale opens the new Chemical Engineering Building, now known as the Don Nicklin Building.
2000: Wiles retires as a Senior Lecturer at UQ.
2009: The UQ School of Chemical Engineering is established after the UQ School of Engineering (which incorporated individual disciplinary departments) becomes the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology.
2014: Wiles is advised in November that he has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AO). He dies in December.