Chemical Engineering

The Chemical Engineering objects vary enormously in date and provenance. For the majority, their association stems from their collection by Paul Jowlabar, a professor at Chemical Engineering, from items discarded from the Wallberg Building. Jowlabar donated a small number of objects to the collections project in the spring of 2017–some of these were student-made items associated with the Unit Ops Lab, a practical laboratory at the department with a 70-year history.

The remainder, including the uncatalogued majority due to be transferred to the UTSIC on-site storage in the late fall of 2017, were rescued from being discarded by Jowlabar and little is known about their provenance. Some of these may date back to the mining history of department.

• A number of additional items were collected in June 2018 from the department following a departmental clear-out of various offices. These items are largely associated with teaching, and vary in date.
• A small number of artifacts related to the SLOWPOKE nuclear research reactor lab, which operated at Chemical Engineering from 1971 to 1998, was gathered in May of 2019 from the home of Dr. Ron Hancock, the lab’s former director.

Contact: Erich Weidenhammer (erich.weidenhammer@utoronto.ca), Curator, UTSIC.