The founding of the Chair of Chemical Technology in 1955 and the appointment of Kenneth Denbigh FRS to this chair heralded the establishment of an independent Department of Chemical Technology, which became the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1960.

The first cohort of undergraduate students, who started in the 1955/56 academic year, were taught chemical engineering by Professor Denbigh and Dr David Wilson. Professor Denbigh joined Edinburgh in 1955 from Cambridge where he had been a lecturer in chemical engineering assisting since 1948 the founding chair of that department. Dr Wilson in the meantime had moved from Chemistry to the new department where he remained until his retirement in 1978 as a senior lecturer. Since this time, the University of Edinburgh has awarded over 1000 undergraduate degrees and in excess of 100 postgraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology.

Graduates from the years below have formally expressed interest and/or are definitely coming. If you wish to make contact with any of these graduates, please contact us at ChemengAlumni@ed.ac.uk. Current and former staff from across the years are also attending including Dr David Wilson, a founding lecturer of the Department of Chemical Technology.