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William Eykamp, consultant and former president of Koch Membrane Systems, Inc., will deliver Lafayette’s annual Resnik Lecture in Engineering at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Williams Center for the Arts.
On Oct. 3 and 4 Eykamp will also share his experiences and perspectives with Lafayette students in classes and informal discussions.
A distinguished expert in the field of membrane science and technology, Eykamp’s topic will be “Eau de Vie.”
“Many important lessons in conflict, economics, history, the methods of science and technology, marketing, and the laws of unintended consequences flow from a discussion of water,” Eykamp says. “Water is essential to all known forms of life. Only a tiny fraction of the vast quantity on earth is available to humans. Almost all is either in the salty oceans or in glaciers. Engineers play a vital role in making this tiny fraction available and cheap.”
The Resnik Lecture is sponsored by the Farber Memorial Endowment Fund, created by the late Jack Farber, Lafayette Class of 1931. The lectureship was established in memory of Judith A. Resnik, an astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
He is author of “Membrane Separations” in the seventh edition of Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook; “Membrane Separations in Downstream Processing” in Handbook of Downstream Processing; and “Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration” in Membrane Separations Technology.
In addition to being a consultant, he is a director of Osmonics, Inc., one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of water treatment machines, components and equipment for the industrial, commercial and institutional markets, with corporate offices in Minnetonka, Minn., and sales offices in the United States and around the globe.
In 1969 Eykamp joined ABCOR, Inc., Wilmington, Mass. (The company’s name was later changed to Koch Membrane Systems, Inc.) He became the firm’s president in 1981, after serving as program manager; manager of research and development; vice president and director of operations; and vice president and general manager. Today the company’s annual sales approach $100 million and it is the largest manufacturer of industrial scale ultrafiltration equipment in the world.
Eykamp retired in 1988 as president and director. He was also a director of Abcor Japan, Ltd., and Abcor Environmental Systems, Ltd., in the United Kingdom.
From 1988-1992 he taught in the College of Engineering and the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and was adjunct professor in the department of chemical engineering at Tufts University from 1994 to 1999.
After receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1958 he began his career with W.R. Grace & Co., where he remained until 1969. He received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1965 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He frequently lectures at short courses, particularly the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ continuing education course on membranes and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ bioprocess technology seminar.
He is a director and treasurer of the North American Membrane Society and a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, and European Society of Membrane Science and Technology.
In 1995 Purdue awarded him its Distinguished Engineer Award.