The Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) celebrates this academic year the 25th anniversary of the first graduates of this degree by the institution of Castilla-La Mancha and does so with them as guest speakers in the lecture series 'DIQ Fridays'.
The lecture series 'DIQ Fridays', organised by the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), will have some very special speakers this academic year. These are the graduates of the first graduating class of the Chemical Engineering degree at the regional University (1993-1998), which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Fourteen people were the first to obtain the title of chemical engineers from the UCLM and the Department wanted to pay tribute to all of them for their courage and daring because "they gave us a blind vote of confidence, as they did not know what this degree was about, which was newly introduced in Spain", as the director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Juan Francisco Rodríguez, pointed out during the presentation ceremony of the cycle that took place in the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Technologies of the Campus of Ciudad Real.
During the ceremony, chaired by the rector of the UCLM, Julián Garde, Professor Rodríguez explained that the regional university was the second to introduce a degree in Chemical Engineering. In the previous academic year, 1992-1993, the University of Valladolid had already done so for the first time in the country.
The Rector congratulated the graduates of that first graduating class for having opted for innovative studies and that time, "has shown that it was a magnificent choice and that the training has helped you to become great professionals". He also congratulated the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UCLM, "a faithful witness of the history of the regional University, a scientific benchmark in which teaching and research excellence is part of its DNA". Proof of the Department's research and transfer success, the rector pointed out that since its creation it has obtained nearly 46 million euros in competitive calls for proposals.
Together with the rector and the director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, three of the main actors involved in the implementation of the new degree programme took part in this event: the then rector of the UCLM, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Luis Arroyo, Antonio Antiñolo and Pablo Cañizares, in that order. All three agreed that it was "quite a challenge" to create a degree of excellence and that "it was achieved".
On behalf of the first graduating class, David Pérez spoke about what it was like to be a student in the first class of a newly created degree. He and the other graduates were presented with a souvenir statuette.
The event was also attended by the current dean of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Manuel Rodrigo.
Cycle of conferences
The series of lectures 'DIQ Fridays' will begin on 24 November and will end on 10 May 2024. It will include a total of seven lectures, which will be given by thirteen graduates of the first promotion of Chemical Engineering at the UCLM, which will address issues related to digitisation, decarbonisation, energy transition, the social perception of chemical engineering or the role of the chemical engineer in the pharmaceutical industry, among others.
All the conferences (24 November and 15 December 2023; and 2 and 23 February, 15 March, 19 April and 10 May 2024) will take place in the auditorium of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Technologies at 12.45 pm.