The chemical and biological engineering program at Iowa State turned 100 last week. The department celebrated this occasion with two days of festivities on campus.

“It only happens once,” said Andrew Hillier, chairman of the department and Wilkinson Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering. “The department has had a really long, successful history, and it’s a good chance to reflect on what we’ve done.”

Hillier said the department started with only one class of chemical engineering, and graduated two students its first year. Now, the program has 678 undergraduates and 56 graduate students.

The department presented new, renovated spaces to the alumni at this celebration.

“Almost a dozen alumni have [donated funds for] recently renovated spaces or are about to in Sweeney Hall,” said Chris Neary, communication specialist for chemical and biological engineering.

The alumni are helping fund students currently in the program.

“They come back and want to invest their time, energy and resources in helping us to maintain and grow and continue to produce high quality graduates,” Hillier said.

One of the accomplishments of the department is the Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, which is the only research center at Iowa State funded by the National Science Foundation.

“We’re at record levels of enrollment,” Hillier said, adding it as another accomplishment he says is significant.

Hillier said he has some goals of his own for the next 100 years of this department.

“I feel very strongly that a strong department is one that is strong across the board,” Hillier said. “We need to grow the graduate student population to match the undergraduate program.”

Along with the addition of more graduates, there is a need for people with the higher levels of knowledge to assist in the classroom, Hillier said. 

This department has also partnered with other engineering departments for some projects.

The year the department became its own was in 1920, when Orland Russell Sweeney became head of the department. 

“[Sweeney Hall] was put up in 1964 as the primary building for chemical engineering,” Hillier said. 

The department has undergone many name changes throughout the years, Neary said. 

“It was officially named ‘chemical and biological engineering’ in 2005,” Hillier said.

The two-day celebration started off Thursday with John Anderson from the Illinois Institute of Technology as the keynote speaker of the research symposium.

Thursday ended by watching the Iowa State versus Tulsa game on television.

Significant parts of the Friday celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Sweeney Hall, and the night ended with a banquet.