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CHE Department History - Department Chairs
Dr. John C. Biery - (1971-1981)
 John
received his B.S.E. from Michigan in 1951 and his Ph.D. from Iowa State in 1961.
In the interim he worked at Dow and the University of Wisconsin, then at Los
Alamos and the University of Arizona.
John came as close to being a perpetual-motion machine as is possible. He rode
his motorcycle to work every day. In addition to his administrative duties, he
kept in touch with what every faculty member was doing and included that
information in a weekly departmental newsletter (which he talked his wife into
publishing, so as not to take any time away from the secretaries regular
duties). He introduced and taught a senior seminar, presenting humanistic values
and practical aspects of living to the students that they didn't get in their
technical courses.
While the number of graduate students had remained relatively constant, the
number of undergraduates was 25-30 and our Department was small compared to
other UF engineering departments such as electrical and mechanical. Biery was
determined to do something about that. He began traveling to Florida high
schools, talking to the students about career opportunities in chemical
engineering. He soon realized that he alone could not cover the state, so he
enlisted all of the faculty in the crusade. They visited high schools and
community colleges throughout the state, making friends with the career
counselors, the chemistry and physics teachers, and speaking to the students.
When the national running craze began, John was one of the first to join in,
running ten to fifteen miles a day either before or after work. But that was not
enough. He began to think of the running human body in chemical engineering
terms—as a chemical process. He began to take all kinds of physical measurements
while running: air temperature, body temperature, blood pressure, heart beat,
pulse, water consumption, weight loss, lung capacity, etc. He spread his
enthusiasm for running to the rest of the faculty and was soon taking
measurements on them also. He traveled around the country giving seminars to
other CHE departments on the data, calculations, and analysis he had made on the
human running machine and, at the same time, advertising our Department.
To get around faster, he purchased an airplane and learned how to fly. That,
unfortunately, was what ended his career. On returning from Texas with two other
faculty members from the Engineering College, the plane crashed, killing all
three men. At the memorial service for John in January 1981, people from all
walks of life had words of praise for him. The departmental Computer Room was
named in his honor.
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