Page 16 - Keble Review 2014

Professor Richard Darton’s
Retirement
16
The Keble Review 2014
statutory Readers are a rare and almost unknown category of academics in Oxford, perhaps like one of those fantastical creatures: the unicorn or the yeti. Yet we’ve had one of these fabled creatures quietly going about his business amongst us in Keble for over two decades: Professor Richard Darton. Richard has been in Oxford since 1991 wearing various hats, including for 5 years being an effective and popular Head of the Department
of Engineering Science. Initially seconded from Shell
in Holland to help set up chemical engineering as
an undergraduate subject in Oxford, he has tutored thermodynamics and fluid mechanics to generations of Keble undergraduates. He’d usher them into his office, usually in the department. The students would arrive enthusiastic and ready for initiation into the mysteries of the Laws of Thermodynamics. I always thought
that the same students seemed a little downcast afterwards. But, as C P Snow almost once said, these laws can be loosely translated into ‘you can’t win’,
‘in fact you can’t even break even’ and ‘you have to take part’ – none of these being particularly happy thoughts for the average undergraduate!
As well as university and college teaching, Richard has been research active throughout his time in Oxford. His broad interests have included bubbles and the effects of surface tension and surface properties in liquids more widely, although not necessarily with the aim of pouring the perfect pint of beer. This work is relevant to a wide range of chemical engineering processes involving mixing, separation and more general materials processing. In recent years his research has moved
into issues more in the public eye such as sustainability and geo-engineering, where he has trenchant views on topics such as schemes purporting to save the planet from global warming – clearly a worthwhile
aim - but not when such schemes get dangerously close to violating both common sense and the laws of thermodynamics.
Richard has also been an effective ambassador for engineering, and particularly chemical engineering nationally and internationally. He has served on many of the IChemE committees culminating in his time as President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He was so effective in this role that he was then promoted to become President of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. Although he assured us that
this wasn’t the case, his friends suspected that his motivation might have been the exotic venues, or perhaps that should be exotic menus, in interesting countries. He received an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List; well deserved recognition of his services to engineering within the Keble community, inside the Oxford ring road, across the UK and internationally.
Throughout his time in Oxford, even when distracted by departmental duties or tasks undertaken for engineering more widely, Richard has always been a delightful colleague, full of sound advice and able to see both sides of any issue. The other engineering tutors in Keble and our undergraduates have benefited greatly from his hard work and common sense. We thank him for his time with us and we wish both
him and Diana a long and happy retirement, though, knowing Richard and his enthusiasm for chemical engineering, we’ll be seeing him around College and the Department for many years to come.
Professor Paul Taylor
Fellow and Tutor in Engineering