Gator Chemical Engineers have been standing out among their peers for decades. From serving as integral team members in the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, to perfecting trans-dermal drug delivery, to being recognized as a part of a Nobel Peace Prize winning team, Gator ChemE’s have found enormous success in countless endeavors.

Our faculty continues to stand out as well, and include some the most decorated in the country. Among them, Dr. Dinesh O. Shah has contributed dramatically to this legacy of greatness. Dr. Shah joined the University of Florida in 1970 and over more than three decades committed himself to his students, his world-renowned research program on enhanced oil recovery and surface science, and to making ChemE a world-class department.

Dr. Shah retired in 2005 after a distinguished academic career spanning 35 years, but his legacy continues. By making a generous financial contribution to the university, Dr. Shah has launched a campaign to support excellence in academics by establishing a permanent, endowed Professorship in the Chemical Engineering Department.

Named faculty endowments can enhance the department ranking and overall prestige. When we secure an endowed professorship, the gift is invested and the returns are used to provide a consistent and increasing source of funds to the faculty member’s academic pursuits. Endowment funds exist in perpetuity and impact generations well beyond our own.

Perhaps the most important benefit is that these endowments allow us to recruit and retain world-class faculty by bestowing on them the honor of a named professorship. As the first-ever recipient of the Charles A. Stokes Professorship, Dr. Shah understands the impact this kind of support can have on the career of our faculty and consequently the benefit it returns to the students.

Our Goal:
Raise $600,000 to fund the Dr. Dinesh O. Shah Professorship
in Surface Science – and we’re almost there!

Because of Dr. Shah’s pledge of $200,000 and generous support from the University of Florida, we have more than $400,000 in commitments! We need your support to help secure critical funds that will aid in recruiting and retaining the best faculty members to the department. Your tax-deductible donation may be pledged over a series of years. Please consider being a part of Chemical Engineering’s legacy of greatness.

To help support the Dr. Dinesh O. Shah Professorship in Surface Science, email Development Director Jake Logan (jlogan@ufl.edu) for more information.