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A Long Collaborative Tradition Collaboration arises from the simple act of people talking, says Robert L. Burwell Jr., professor emeritus in chemistry. "That happens more at Northwestern than at most places," he adds. And it's nothing new. Scientists at the University always had a tendency to do collaborative research. "Right after the war, there were a lot of new faces," Burwell says. "The older and wiser heads got the idea of a luncheon talk. To make it look honest, the older ones decided to give the first talk. But it wasn't going to be the older ones who gave advice but who got it! Those Tuesday luncheons started a tradition of ad hoc collaborative research." As federal funding became more important, joint research requests increased because the research was becoming more sophisticated and professors had begun to specialize. But back then, not all research was supported by outside sources. Some came from the funds that Vladimir Ipatieff, a professor in chemistry, had willed to the University. His financial support was just one element of his astonishing legacy to Northwestern and the result of another collaboration, an unusual one between industry and the University. The story began in 1931, when Ipatieff, the world's leading expert on catalysis, arrived in Chicago from Russia with visa problems and a need for an academic home. Under a special agreement with Universal Oil Products Co., now based in Des Plaines, Ill., and called UOP LLC, Ipatieff established a laboratory at Northwestern, where he conducted industrial research. Ipatieff and his first research assistant, Herman Pines, discovered a revolutionary process to refine oil, using a catalyst to convert waste gases to high-octane aviation fuel. Thanks to this fuel, the outmanned, outgunned British aviators held off superior German air power during the Battle of Britain. In March 1940, "the [British] fighter command began to convert its Hurricanes and Spitfires to 100-octane fuel," wrote Richard Hough and Denis Richards, authors of The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II (Norton, 1990). "Hurricanes in France during the brief French campaign were still running on 87 octane, and it came as a considerable shock to [German Messerschmitt] 109 pilots in particular, who witnessed the startling improvement in the performance of both the Hurricane and the Spitfire." Upon Ipatieff's death in 1952, Pines became the first Ipatieff Professor, a chair that honors the legacy of Ipatieff's contributions to Northwestern. Burwell was second to hold the chair. After his retirement, Northwestern continued the research focus of the Ipatieff Laboratory by constructing a building just south of the Technological Institute, which became the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science. Wolfgang Sachtler, the third Ipatieff Professor, became the first center director in 1982. From 1993 to 1997, Harold Kung, professor of chemical engineering, served as director, and Peter Stair is the current head. "To put together the proposal for the Institute for Environmental Catalysis, we wore down the soles of our shoes walking between my office, which is in the farthest corner of McCormick, and Peter's office," says Kimberly Gray, associate director of the IEC. -- M.M.
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