The Last Lecture

AKMA Quader 1. Introduction Some months back Dr. Razia asked me, Why dont you give a lecture before your retirement from BUET? She suggested that I title the lecture last lecture, as is often delivered by the retiring faculties in North American universities. I told her to give me some time to think about it. My dilemma was two-fold. What shall I lecture about? And am I good enough a faculty to deliver such lecture? Finally I made up my mind to tell Razia that I am going to speak as suggested. This is not to be a scholarly lecture, nor is it a sermon for the young. Today, I shall be telling my story of what I am and how do I see my life now. I have divided this lecture into several parts and they follow along many themes. 2. Life on log-log scale As a chemical engineering student, I understand how scattered data presented on log-log graph produce a smooth curve. I have decided here to present my life on this planet from second one onward on a log-log scale with time as abscissa and achievement and experience as ordinate. The plot involves 10 cycles for time and three cycles for the ordinate for achievement and experience.
1000

Achivements and Experience

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10

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Time (sec)

As I look at the plot, I find that in the first few seconds after my arrival to this planet it was time to adjust to the planet in terms of environment as well as challenges for becoming a discoverer and explorer. You are struggling every moment to deal with ever-changing environment. Your sensory organs are working at the peak. You can distinguish your mother from other ladies by sensing the body aroma. You can differentiate the touch and voice of your mother from others. I do not remember any of these things from my own life but I have learned these from my grandchildren. During the first million seconds, you have learned to roll on your belly, how to draw your mothers attention and you have become an explorer with endless vigor for experimenting with new ideas. Your mind and brain are unadulterated because they are not yet poisoned with borrowed ideas. People around you are amazed by your innovation and ingenuity. I wish we could have been more sensible to nurture our childrens innovative potential instead of trying to instill our dreams in them. I consider my first 100 million seconds to be more active, creative, innovative and explosive. But I do not

remember or recollect anything of first 100 million seconds of my life. I cannot remember the face of my mother when I first saw her and for next five years; and I cannot recollect her voice singing me to sleep. My hard disc for those 100 million seconds has become irretrievable. In those 100 million seconds I learned to speak, observe, walk, jump, run, play, laugh, listen and imitate. Life was truly full with excitement, expectation, celebration and jubilation. For all our children, let us make endeavor to give them first 100 million seconds to live and grow up in their own world with our unfettered love and support, but neither guidance nor interruption. 3. Education Like all of us, educating and learning began for me with birth. But formal education began when I was admitted into schools. Before I was enrolled into Class I at Kalkini Primary School, I learned to read and write Bangla alphabets. I had only one book titled Adarshalipi along with a black slate and pencil. The year passed quietly and was promoted to Class II. Now I had two books, one for Bangla and other Arithmetic. Life was made exciting when our teachers asked us to clean the playground and sow flower plants and peanuts. The school was a long shed with galvanized corrugated iron roof and a mud floor. While in Class V, I was selected for Primary Scholarship Examination. Special lessons were arranged for the scholarship examinees. Basically these involved cramming notes prepared by teachers and working out arithmetic problems endlessly. This was the time when I had to read additional related books. I enjoyed reading books on history and geography. The examination went well and I topped the list of scholars for Bakergonj range. The result did not excite me but my father felt very proud of my success. Looking back, I can say that we were not challenged to read and write on our own. I now feel that once a young child has learned to read and write, he or she should be encouraged to read books and write about the things around him or her. Once a young boy or girl has acquired skill this independently, he or she will enjoy schooling related to anything to his or her liking. Our system of education at the primary level continues not to promote and support selfdevelopment, creativity and blooming of potentials. Today a six-year kid is sadly burdened with several kilograms of books and papers carried on the back, and with no excitement for developing his or her potential or creativity. The system is pathetically oppressive. I attended four Secondary Schools before I appeared at Matriculation examination. Since my father was on transferable job, I changed schools with his transfer. Though these were so called the best schools at the thana level, they were hardly well-staffed. Classes were boring except those of geometry and history. We were not encouraged to work hard, think independently and show originality. At the same time I failed to escape the system of selfannihilation. However, the teachers were very sincere and taught us seriously. I passed Matric in 1961 and got admitted into Dhaka College in the Science group for Higher Secondary Certificate Program. I received a seat in the South Hostel, and this was for the first time I was away from my parents. For my rural background, the surrounding and atmosphere of Dhaka College and its Hostels were something I loved. I made new friends who, like me, were all from places far away from Dhaka. I was excited by finding Professor Showkot Osman teaching us Bangla. His short story Abbas was included in the syllabus of Bangla in the secondary school. He was a great teacher and for the whole year he expounded to us the humane side of man and society. He talked about social evils, inequalities, exploitation, labor movement, freedom of thought and expression, and so forth. He was influenced by the colonial era, independence movements in the colonies, rise of socialism, evils of capitalism

and class struggles for equality and justice. For me it was a meeting with a great mind faceto-face telling us to work toward creating a classless egalitarian society. Final HSC examinations were over in less than 22 months from the date of starting the classes in the college. The result was published towards the end of July, during which I was staying in our village home. My father brought the Daily Ittefaq publishing the HSC results with my name included in the merit list, and he also brought rosgolla for celebrations. After the 12th grade, what to do? I had two things in mind: Physics or Chemical Engineering. I completed formalities for studying Physics at Dhaka University and, as usual I was advised to have a seat in Fazlul Huq Hall. At the same time, I was preparing for the drawing test for admission into Engineering University--what was known as EPUET. I was selected for studying Engineering and chose Chemical Engineering. My liking of Chemistry and the visit to the first natural gas based ammonia-urea complex at Fenchugonj somewhat influenced my choice. Today I must admit, it was the right choice. The classes at the engineering university began on November 15, 1963. In the first semester I was allocated a seat in the Main Hostel, what is today Rashid Bhaban. Four of us shared the room, which was designated as No. 39. The accommodation was very comfortable what I now term very much royal. The program at BUET was a strict and regimented one. In the winter before the sunrise, we would come to the university playground for 30-minute physical training. I considered it a healthy start for the day. When the mid-term examination became due, I was attacked with chicken pox and shifted to the University Medical Centre, which is today the security office beside Civil Engineering Building. Another student with chicken pox who was senior to me was also admitted into the centre. We shared the same room. I was moved by our Vice-Chancellor Dr. M.A. Rashids love, care and concern for the two of us at the Medical Centre. He used to visit us regularly in the evening. His kindness and caring words boosted our morale. I missed the mid-term examinations. I passed the semester with the final examination on the basis of full marks. I was credited only for the allocated remainder portion of the marks set aside for the final examination, that is, on 60 to 67 percent marks. Since our evaluation over eight semesters was cumulative one, in my case I had to carry on with zero against 560 marks allocated for the lost mid-term of the first semester. I was unhappy and disappointed. I vowed to complete the program with a first class so that I would have all through first class academic credentials. We learned that the chemical engineering program here had been designed in North American way, in line with John Hopkins University, University of Delware and Texas A & M College. Professor M.A. Naser, Professor S.M.M. Huq, Dr. Iqbal Mahmud, Dr. H.A. Qazi, Mr. Sohrab Hossain and others taught us. Professor Naser was my final year thesis supervisor, while Professor Huq taught us Mass Transfer; Dr. Mahmud taught us Industrial Stoichiometry, Heat Transfer, Transport Phenomena and Corrosion; Dr. Qazi taught us Kinetics, Process Control and Plant Design and Mr. Hossain taught Thermodynamics. The syllabuses were not very long but we were taught intensively. There were not many textbooks like there are today. Total number of textbooks available could not occupy more than twenty inches of a bookshelf.

The first two semesters were common to all engineering students; and departments were chosen in the third semester. In each semester we had to study seven to eight theory courses and three to four practice/laboratory courses. The program was demanding but not oppressive as the materials covered were not too much. Personally I found Industrial Stoichiometry, Heat Transfer, Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics and Plant Design very interesting and challenging. As a final year plant design project, I worked on the design of a carbon black plant using Natural Gas as a raw material. I now realize that it was not a right design project as it involves more art than science or engineering and design related matters are commercial secrets. 4. Learning Chemical Engineering After graduating in chemical engineering, I joined the then Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) at Dhaka Laboratory as a Chemical Engineer. Dr. N.A. Khan, Director of Dhaka CSIR Laboratories while visiting the department in October 1967, selected me for the job before the final semester examination. The day I joined CSIR, I was nominated for a Colombo Plan Scholarship for Ph.D. program in the UK. My job at CSIR was concerned with process development at a pilot plant scale. For me it was an exciting beginning. I was assigned two projects: production of tartaric acid from tamarind pulp and decortications of tamarind seeds for making sizing materials. With the tartaric acid project, first I attempted to learn the production steps by performing the steps on the bench scale following the process description and procedures given by the chemists. Working at the bench scale provided me a foundation to learn how steps like extraction, reactions, separation methods and recycle streams are a part of the process. This is where I applied my learning of material and energy balance, residence time concept and when to stop a processing step. The second project was a raw deal for me as no background information was available. The process would require roasting the seeds so that the shells could be separated from the kernels, which would be powdered in a disc mill and be followed by size separation. The roasting of seeds was a difficult step, as the optimum roasting temperatures as well as the roaster type were not known. Moreover, over-roasting would make the seeds unsuitable for sizing purposes. An alternative way of removing the shell could be by soaking in water followed by removing the wet shell with the use of water jets. It would mean long processing steps. What I did not know then was that decortications and grinding of seeds are a special type of unit operations and that related equipment is available from specialist vendors. Before these projects could be completed, I had to leave Dhaka to join the graduate program at the Postgraduate School of Chemical Engineering of the University of Bradford, UK with the Colombo Plan Scholarship. I left Dhaka on August 29, 1968 and the academic session started from October. I was first registered for the M.Sc. program by research and was transferred to Ph.D. program in March 1969. My research work was an experimental work dealing with heat and momentum transfer in the turbulent flow with Non-Newtonian fluids. My supervisor was the Chairman of the Postgraduate School of Chemical Engineering Professor W.L. Wilkinson, a renowned researcher in the field of Non-Newtonian fluids. He is credited with publishing the first monograph on Non-Newtonian fluids titled: Non-Newtonian Fluids-Fluid Mechanics, Mixing and Heat Transfer, which was published by Pergamon press in 1960. Professor Wilkinson gave me this book and some papers on Non-Newtonian fluids in the related area. I started to learn about these fluids and work conducted in the past on heat and momentum 4

transfer in the turbulent flow. At the same time, I was auditing the M.Sc. courses dealing with Non-Newtonian fluids, applied mathematics and continuum mechanics. Towards the end of November, I submitted my research proposal and work plan to Professor Wilkinson. According to the proposal, I would be required to design and construct an experimental setup and carry out necessary experiments. In December, Professor Wilkinson sent me to Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment at Harwell to get some ideas from similar work being undertaken there. I stayed there for two weeks. It was indeed a great experience for me to see the kind of engineering researches carried out at a research establishment and facilities available and built. I there realized the inner message of the proverb: Rome was not built in a day. My Doctoral thesis defense took place on the morning of June 22,1972 and Professor F.A. Holland was the external examiner. The defense went smoothly and the last question he asked was, What are the weaknesses of your work? My answer satisfied him. The defense was over in less than one and a half hours. Thereafter I returned to my room. After about ten minutes Professor Holland and Professor Wilkinson entered my room and said Congratulations. A relief and a milestone in my career achieved! The big and complicated experimental rig that I had built for my doctoral work was a learning experience and it remained a facility for another decade for use by several doctoral students of chemical engineering department at the University of Bradford. My research was interrupted from March to December 1971 for my involvement in the organization of Bangladesh Liberation Movement in UK. After the defense of my thesis, I returned to Bangladesh on June 30, 1972 and joined BCSIR, Dhaka. The convocation conferring Ph.D. degree was held on December 2, 1972 and I did not attend it. In my first meeting with Professor Wilkinson, I told him my future plan and responsibilities with CSIR to work on process development at the pilot plant scale. Professor Wilkinson liked my future plan and accordingly arranged many visits and interactions with chemical industries and research establishments. These include visits to: DCHEMA in Frankfurt in 1970, National Engineering Laboratories (NEL) at East Kilbride in Scotland in 1969, ICI Plants at Welwyn Garden City and ICI Organic Division at Huddersfield, BP plants at Hull, Warren Spring Laboratories at Stevenage, Petracarbon (a chemical engineering design company) near Manchester and chemical engineering departments of Leeds, Loughborough, Salford, Birmingham and Imperial College. These visits broadened my views and perception of the ongoing research and development in chemical engineering; functioning of a design office; design, construction and operation of pilot plant and scale-up, and production of fine chemicals by big companies by assembling unit process and unit operation units on order-toorder basis using the already established plant and process design documents. These visits have helped me to mould myself to be down-to-earth to employ common sense using the underlying principles of science and engineering. My visit to DCHEMA in Frankfurt in the summer of 1970, which lasted for two weeks, was an eye-opener for me. It allowed me to visualize the practice and development of chemical engineering and allied industries. There I understood what is engineering and what practice is. During this exhibition I had an opportunity to visit a wine manufacturing plant based on grapes. The processing involved engineering, art and tradition. In later years, I had the opportunity of visiting two such industrial exhibitions: Kunststoff-79 at Dusseldorf in Germany and Petroleum Expo in Edmonton in Canada in 1987. I have 5

learned much from these exhibitions, and they have enriched and broadened my understanding of engineering practice and what is involved in manufacturing plant machinery and equipment while implementing an engineering project. Textbooks or Journal papers hardly provide you with that kind of appreciation of practical engineering. I have always taken an opportunity to learn how process plants are designed, built and operated. I am very fortunate to have close links with process industries in Bangladesh, both large and small. While attending scientific conferences and congresses held in India, I have visited IITs at Madras, Mumbai, Delhi, Kharagpur and Gawahati; Jadavpur University; National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune; National Physical Laboratory, Delhi; Central Leather Research Laboratories, Chennai; and some chemical process plants and plant equipment manufacturing facilities. These visits reinforce my belief in the patriotism and nationalism of Indian professors, scientists and engineers; and why India has continued to grow technologically and to succeed in becoming self-reliant in most areas of science and technology. This is very much rooted in their genes. I have got the same gut feeling when I visited DSM at Galeen (the Netherlands); Bayer at Lever Kussen; Chemische Werks Huls at Marl; Krupp at Essen; and Technical University at Aachen, in Germany. You must have a vision and work hard to become technologically superior. 5. Did I want to be a Teacher? The answer is No. Never in my life as a student did I think of becoming a teacher, and it was not on my agenda. When I studied Chemical Engineering I had thought of working in an engineering company or in a R&D establishment. Since there were no chemical engineering company involved in design and engineering of chemical and allied industries in the country, I thought of joining CSIR or AEC. CSIR offered me a job before the completion of my final semester and I accepted it. After the completion of my Ph.D., I was a offered a lectureship in the chemical engineering department at the University of Bradford. I politely declined this offer of Professor Wilkinson and told him that I must return to my newly liberated motherland Bangladesh. Even after returning to Bangladesh, Professor Wilkinson wrote me twice to reconsider the offer but I did not change my mind to go back to Bradford. Was the decision right? In todays context of Bangladesh, the decision was wrong as I see Bangladesh being gulped by a black hole. In less than a year I left CSIR to join the department of chemical engineering at BUET as Assistant Professor in August 1973. I have been teaching here for almost 35 years excluding a one-year (1979-80) visiting fellowship at the Institute of Polymer Technology at Loughborough University of Technology, U.K. and a two-year (1983-85) appointment serving Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) as Design Manager. These three years taught me how to practice engineering and technology. To join CUFL, I had to resign from BUET and when I returned to BUET in 1985 it was a fresh start, meaning loss of seniority along with other privileges. For all practical purposes, I have become non-entity in BUETs hierarchy. This has sometimes hurt me, but it has never stood in my way from being loyal to my students, BUET, society and motherland Bangladesh. 6. Experience as Teacher Being a teacher at BUET, I am fortunate to work and learn with the students who are intelligent, bright and smart. The great resource of mine was my students especially those who worked with me for their final year thesis projects and design projects. While the students worked on completing the requirements of academic program, I looked for understanding the underlying principles, why and how things work and why they do not work. All my students have been assigned experimental projects that would require 6

designing, building and operation of a system. My emphasis and objectives have been to experience the system in operation and learn the limitations. While with the design projects, the students were assigned to design process plants about which I had prior understanding or the plants are in operation in Bangladesh. Some of the students were required to conduct experiments to collect design parameters as well to visit such plants in operation to appreciate what they would be designing. With the masters theses, the students were mostly assigned experimental projects and some of these works were related to process development and learning know-how. Through their works, the students have enriched my understanding of chemical engineering fundamentals as well as made me to be practical and to use common sense. I have taught several courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels that include Transport Phenomena, Process Design, Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics, and introduced new courses such as Polymer Processing, Food Processing and Environmental Science. Teaching in a class of bright and smart students has always been a great pleasure. I have always been well prepared for the lecture and ready to answer to the students questions. I have allowed the students to interrupt my lecture to clarify points that they could not understand. If I did not know the answer of a question, I admitted that and asked them to wait for the next class. The students made me read more and work harder. I have encouraged them to read outside the prescribed textbooks and have provided them with references for further study. With the availability of the internet facility, the students have today a grater access to lecture materials of others but they hardly access these. I am a slave driver and I have made my students work hard. I believe in making the students think independently and exploit their potential. This has made the students enthusiastic about their work. I have never tried to infiltrate their brains with my own idea, rather I have encouraged them to experiment with their own ideas. 7. Engineering Practice Right from my student days I wanted to be a practicing engineer. I have a great knack for process development and process design. Over the years since 1973 I have been in close touch with ammonia-urea, sulfuric acid, phosphatic fertilizer, petroleum refinery, natural gas, paper and pulp, sugar and distillery, edible oil, and fine chemical industries of Bangladesh. Being the Design Manager of CUFL for two years from 1983 to 1985, I learned a little about process design and project implementation. This helped me to use my expertise in different industries both in the private and public sector. I participated in a number of trouble-shooting efforts in different chemical plants. Some of these works involved common sense, innovative ideas and using of the underlying principles of engineering fundamentals. Plant managers accepted the recommendations and implemented them negating their own conclusions and work plans. I am citing here two examples of my engineering decisions while working as CUFLs Design Manager. The General Contractor Toyo Engineering Corporation proposed to build the 3-km long covered urea bulk conveyor gallery 19 m above the ground. The 3-km long gallery with a 2.9m3m continuous covered housing with a conveyor and steam heating system had to be designed to withstand a wind speed of 150 miles per hour plus gusts. Toyo was told to keep the height 3m instead of 19 m as it could not provide any justification to make it 19 m. It resulted in large saving for steel structure, support and foundation, and it also improved safety.

The urea unit had an evaporation system to concentrate urea solution from 87.5% by weight to 99.5% prior to prilling. When Toyo submitted the design for the evaporation system it based its heat load by assuming inlet concentration of 82.5% instead of 87.5%. This meant a larger heat load, requiring larger heat transfer area. I told Toyo that at least 30% of the evaporator tubes calculated based on heat load would have to be plugged when commissioned. CUFL management and Toyo insisted on for having a larger evaporator overruling my review on the ground that the over-sized equipment would be good for the plant. When the urea plant was commissioned, Toyo encountered solid urea depositing inside the tubes and it plugged about 30% of the evaporator tubes. An example of common sense application based on fundamental principle was the pollution control of sulfur dioxide in the stack of a chrome-sulfate plant by installing a cooler to absorb the sulfur dioxide by water condensate of the saturated stack gas coming out at 800C. The solution was based on the knowledge derived from a psychrometric chart for water-air and solubility of sulfur dioxide in water. An example of innovative idea was to ascertain the activity of catalyst in the High Temperature Shift Converter (HTS Converter) of CUFL by measuring the converter surface temperature from outside axially at different radial positions when all the thermocouples placed inside the catalyst bed indicated the same temperature for all positions. Based on these measured surface temperatures the plant managers were advised to continue operation for the next eight months when the planned overhauling would be undertaken. The converter functioned satisfactorily up to overhauling. With my colleagues, I participated in the commissioning of: a. A liquid sugar plant built by French Company with French process technology. b. A Sodium Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose plant supplied by an Indian supplier. c. A Liquid Detergent plant supplied by an Indian supplier. For all three plants, laboratory scale studies of the process involving all the steps were carried out in the department to experience the process, understand the process parameters and to write the operating manuals for the plants. A technical Audit of six ammonia-urea complexes under BCIC was carried out during 20002001. It was a challenging work and a good opportunity to learn the inside of these plants. This was a multi-disciplinary teamwork I had the opportunity to investigate into two accidents of UFFL, Ghorasal that took place in 1974 and 1991. These were catastrophic accidents leading to the loss of life, property and production. In one case, it was a design fault, which allowed air to flush a natural gas filter, and in other case it was negligence and a contract violation by the General Contractor. For both cases, Toyo Engineering Corporation was responsible. During the period 1992-95, I was assigned by the then Chairman of BCSIR Dr. M. Waliuzzaman to design, construct and operate pilot plants to demonstrate the operability and viability of ten selected process developed by BCSIR. Ten separate pilot plants were built in the pilot plant section of BCSIR. This was an interesting experience for learning how issues and steps often missed during laboratory scale work can undermine operation of pilot plants or actual plants. My good friend Matin who was the Director of the Pilot Plant Section extended all assistance to complete these pilot plants. One of the challenging tasks that I completed was the safe disposal of 182 tons carbon disulfide left behind after the closure of Karnaphuli Rayon Complex at Chandroghona in 8

1997. This was disposed by building an incineration facility involving design, construction and operation. This was the first indigenous process engineering endeavor in the country. This work was undertaken in 2007-2008 over a period of fifteen months. This saved the country from an environmental disaster from the uncontrolled release or explosion of carbon disulfide due to the failures of the storage tanks which had been immersed in water since 1997. It was a time bomb ticking slowly to initiate the environmental disaster around Chandroghona and the Karnaphuli River. While executing this project I have found that our engineers and technicians working in the industry are capable, competent and smart. I have successfully made an endeavor to introduce the textile wastewater treatment process with chlorine gas in collaboration with the local chemical industry, ASM Chemicals Ltd. About 30 textile wastewater treatment plants have been operating based on this process since November 2008. The Department of Environment (DoE), Bangladesh has thus far refused to approve this indigenous process; and its reasons for refusal are technically untenable. Large scale adoption of the process based on chlorine would have made textile wastewater treatment significantly cheaper and technologically simpler. If DoE, had approved the process by now our water bodies, including the rivers and wetlands, could have become environmentally cleaner. While working with engineers from Germany, Japan, France, England, USA, USSR, Canada, India and China in different chemical process plant projects, I found that our engineers are equally good to the task. Some time we perform better as we are aware of local conditions and past mistakes. They and we analyze and solve a technical problem the same way. I have worked with Jawaherul Ghani of Modern Erection Ltd. for many years dealing with the development of process and equipment. These involved innovation and adaptation. While working with the late Badrul Alam of Wata Chemicals, we worked on process related problems including scale-up. Both Ghani and Badrul are our chemical engineering graduates of 1970 and 1984 respectively. My colleagues in the department were associated with some these works mentioned above and their names include: Professor Iqbal Mahmud, Professor Nooruddin Ahmed, Dr. Khaliqur Rahman, Dr. Serajul Islam, Dr. M. Sabder Ali, Dr. K.I. Omar, Dr. Dil Afroza, Dr. Khaliq Ahmed and many more. We have shared our ideas and worked professionally. 8. Discovering my Roots My roots lie in Bangladesh. My ancestors were humble farmer. They led a green sustainable life. For the last six generations we have been living in the same village at the same homestead and our ancestors are buried in the same family graveyard. Only during the past one hundred years, we have been in touch with current education system. My father passed Matriculation Examination with letter in Mathematics in 1927. He started his career as a schoolteacher. He later joined the police department as literate constable and left the job to join the registration department and at the time of his death he was a Head Clerk. Two of my great-grand fathers taught in the madrasa. Today in our family we have several Ph.Ds, engineers, doctors, MBAs, bankers, lawyer, economists and teachers. Ours is a blooming family having smart professionals. I always remember who I am and still smell the scent of a farmer in my sweat. Our family title Mollah is derived from some of our ancestors because of their association with Madrasa and Maktab. They had never been Mosque-oriented Mollahs but religious persons. 9

9. My Mother A mother is integral part of a childs life. In my case, after the sudden demise of my father I discovered a new Motherhood in my mother. My mother along with my elder brother who had been working at NGFF took the helm of our family consisting of seven school and university going young boys and girls. She provided us all with care, support and strength to carry on our education. She was our shade and life support. She was a strictly disciplined person with a vow to see every one of us receive a proper education and get settled in life. She was for us the symbol of unity and strength. She was a determined courageous mother who blessed her sons to join the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 as freedom fighters. She was very proud for being a mother of freedom fighters. When she passed away 29 years after my father, I realized that the lamp that had been lighting our life and heart has extinguished. In her death, I discovered that she had not only been our mother, she had been more than a mother and grandmother to many in our locality. Her passing saddened them and they came forward to give her last rites ahead of us. Whenever I think of her, my eyes get wet and see her blissful glowing face in the robe meant for final resting. 10. My Family I am blessed with a wonderful family with my wife Nazma providing necessary centripetal force bonding us together. She has always been caring, considerate and charming. She is a loving mother who has passionately raised our two sons tempered with discipline and selfrespect. She is their mentor. She is a successful homemaker who has made our life easy and enjoyable. Our elder son Asif and his wife Shazia who are civil engineering graduates of BUET have earned Ph.D.s in Civil Engineering while the younger son Adnan is an MBA and his wife Sharmin a BBA. We are blessed with three loving grandchildren Arian aged 10, Raya aged 7 and Shah-Ziyan aged 5. Nazma has made my life and career pleasant providing support, strength and encouragement. All our grandchildren, sons and daughter-in-laws are fond of her and enjoy her company. She is a passionate listener and admirable companion. She has been at the centre of our family web holding steadfastly all the strands. Our life has always been full of excitement and pleasant surprises. We have made it cheerful with sugar and spices. Nazma being the only daughter of her father who had held ministerial positions in the governments of Bangladesh for many years, remained detached and unnoticed by preserving her self-respect though she was very attached to her father 11. My Graduate studies and my Realization I have considered my graduate studies leading to Ph.D. as training of the mind preparing myself for undertaking research or investigative type works in new areas. Since my graduate research, which was related to Non-Newtonian heat and momentum transfer in the turbulent flow, was of no relevance to Bangladesh or its industries, I decided not to burden my students by pursuing the topics here. What I did was to encourage the students to undertake experimental work for understanding and experiencing: What happens? How does it happen? Why does it not happen? What limitations are encountered? I have rather concentrated on process development and technology acquisition type works. I engaged my students for studying all kinds of unit operations and novel separation methods by constructing and operating experimental rigs from scratch. For me this was satisfying learning endeavor and it 10

enhanced my professional competence while the students found these works both challenging and exciting. They learned how to build and break, how to operate and fail, and all the difficulties involved. A major drawback of engineering education here is that we have severely failed to fathom the insight and sequence involved in devising a product or system. From the multiplication table to electronic calculator, from a steam engine to rocket engine, from a land phone to cellular phone, from castor oil to GTL or from balm to antibiotics, we as a people had not contributed little nor did we endeavor to acquire technological competence to repeat these ourselves to become self-reliant technologically. We have not learnt to imagine, to innovate or to ask ourselves why? We are intellectually unproductive and incapable. We feel elated by buying a German-made floor duster rather than thinking how to improve our local duster. I have always found that we are not spiritedly committed to develop and apply indigenous science and engineering capacity and competence. I do not think that our society, government or political leadership is responsible for the sordid state of our science and technology. We as individuals have failed to break our cocoon to explore, to ask questions, to look for answers and to create knowledge to bridge the existing gaps. Bangladesh provides endless challenges for us in science and technology to make it socioeconomically prosperous. Instead of doing by ourselves we look to others to work for us. Others do not have any interest in Bangladesh other than exploiting the country economically to their advantage. We have always made ourselves the victim of their buzz words, thereby, leaving aside and ignoring our own pressing needs and programs. 12. Challenges for Chemical Engineers of Bangladesh Chemical engineers and the chemical industry worldwide have successfully met their unwritten obligation to mankind by containing hunger through increased production of food, by combating diseases, by providing clothing and shelter, and above all by raising the level of literacy -- without which the world would have been quite a different place full of starving and diseased people having no clothing or shelter, not to speak of education. They have come forward to meet the gaps between what the Mother Nature can produce and sustain, and what we need. And Bangladesh is an example of such beneficiary. For the chemical engineers and the chemical industry in the country, a greater challenge lies ahead. By 2025, the population of Bangladesh grows to 250 million living in an area 147,000 sq. km with only 7 million hectare cultivable land. The chemical engineers must take the challenge with ideas and ingenuity to achieve some of these listed hereunder: - Can we produce staple crop paddy of the size of peas using the same quantum of inputs? - Can we increase the efficiency of photosynthesis? - Can we make our intestine to take longer time to digest food instead of usual five hours still providing the current level of body nutrition? - Can we have efficient drug delivery in the body thereby minimizing side effects and enhancing efficiency? - Waste minimization and resource conservation? - Recycling and resource recovery? - What about non-invasive crop and vegetable production? We must do these by believing in thermodynamics and conservation of mass, momentum and energy. The new generation is fortunate that they have been challenged to think, imagine and deliver from the frontiers of related and unrelated sources of science and engineering knowledge? 11

13. International Linkage Programs I participated in three important international linkage programs: BUET-Leeds University (UK) funded by ODA; BUET-Alberta University (Canada) funded by CIDA; and BUETNCATSU (North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro) funded by US Aid under the International Development Partnerships Activity (IDP). The BUET-Leeds program enabled me to prepare materials for a food technology course at the undergraduate level as well as to visit several food processing and dairy product plants in the UK. The department with the faculties from Leeds University initiated continuing education programs here in 1985. The BUET-Alberta Program introduced me to the petroleum industry in Canada involving hydrocarbon exploration, development and production. While attending the summer school of Petroleum Technology at the University of Alberta in 1987 I visited some oil and gas fields, tar sand processing plant of Syncrude, manufacturing facility for building drilling rigs, related research laboratories and Petroleum Expo in Edmonton. I was coordinator for BUET-NCATSU linkage program from BUET side while Dr. Shamsuddin Ilias was coordinating from NCATSU end. The three-year program (2001-2004) amongst other things helped to install the first Video-Conferencing Facility of the country in a university at BUET. Eleven continuing education programs were conducted for mid-level professionals from engineering and science backgrounds, and about 400 professionals participated. The programs included: Environment Protection and Pollution Prevention Issues and Initiatives, Hazard Evaluation in Process Industries, Integration of Pollution Prevention Topics into Science and Engineering Curriculum, Environmental Rules and Regulations and Environment Management etc. This enabled me to prepare materials on the Environment and its Protection for teaching our students. Professor Nooruddin Ahmed, the then VC of BUET enthusiastically supported this program and he went to NCATSU to sign the MOU for the linkage program. 14. How to Remain Alive? BUET as a premier engineering institution of the country shall have to go a long way to excel in research and technology development activities. Faculties here today are interested in routine consultancy and testing services for additional compensation. The university pays little attention to what an individual faculty contributes as a researcher. There is no peer pressure to motivate or compel a faculty to undertake research and development work. Nevertheless if one is committed, research can be undertaken. Since joining BUET as a faculty I have engaged myself in research work mostly related to process development and acquisition of know-how funded by local industries, BCSIR, BRTC (BUET), US Aid, Tetrahedron (USA), Commonwealth Science Council (CSC), Ford Foundation etc. Some works are multi-disciplinary and involved other departments. During the past thirty five years, more than thirty chemical engineers, chemists and social scientists were employed full-time in different projects. The chemical engineers were our graduates and for most of them it was their first job after graduation. Many of them later on have earned Ph.Ds and have become faculties here and abroad. In process development projects we worked together to build, bust and learn. These young graduates were full of new ideas and helped me to learn and work differently when the 12

systems did not work. Failures have taught us more and made us search for options that were often unrelated. For me it has been a pleasant way of staying intellectually active. I am grateful to all of the organizations for their trust and confidence in my professional ability and BUET. I have conducted fifteen continuing education courses for outreach and capacity building and I was able to reach about six hundred professionals in engineering and science. Courses covered a wide range of subjects that include: Chemical Process Analysis, Design and Building of Chemical Process Plants and Owners Responsibility in a Developing Country, Commissioning of Process Plants, Environment and Pollution Prevention, Hazard Evaluation for Process Industries, etc. The participants have given us the feedback to help update our programs at BUET to cater for local industry needs as well as to encompass emerging areas in science and engineering. When I was working with CUFL, I discovered a big gap between engineering practice and what we learn at the university. To bridge this gap, I started to collect materials for writing a book. When I returned to BUET in 1985, I began working on it. I taught these materials for about six years at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I also conducted two short courses for industry people. This material was published in the form of a book titled: Design and Building of Process Plants some practical guidelines in 1992. When I presented the book to Professor Naser, he was very pleased and said, Quader, I have been dreaming of writing a book on chemical engineering but you have realized the dream. These kind words of Professor Naser were his approval of my work. 15. Turbulent Heat Transfer-unresolved for me? While undertaking experimental studies in steady turbulent heat transfer in tubes with drag reducing dilute polymeric solutions and solid-liquid suspensions I was surprised to find that our understanding of the mechanism of heat and momentum transfer cannot explain the observed reduced heat transfer. What is somewhat satisfactory for air and water cannot explain the non-Newtonian cases even one has used non-Newtonian flow behavior models. It is likely that we are missing the fundamentals involved here. Probably we need to make noninvasive measurements of temperature and velocity profiles; and this has not been attempted for temperature profile. For the industry this is not important but this is needed to understand the fundamental mechanism involved. I have thought about it and have also contemplated the idea of using viscosity and thermal conductivity to account for heat and momentum transfer in turbulent flow; but could not pursue it intensely. May be some day, someone else amongst us would bridge this knowledge gap. 16. My best moment of life The liberation war of Bangladesh that took place in 1971 from the night of March 25 to December 16 has transformed me as a person and taught me a new meaning of life based on freedom, self-esteem and new identity, a Bangalee of Bangladesh. When the war began, I was a doctoral student at the University of Bradford writing my thesis. I stopped my work and joined the liberation movement as an organizer in UK with base at Bradford. For me it was either a free Bangladesh or to be a stateless person. During these nine months I was fortunate to see the spirit of our common men living in UK to make Bangladesh free. Their patriotism, fellowship and readiness for self-sacrifice made me believe that Bangladesh would be free and none could stop that. Our people are wonderfully simple, they believe in sincerity of purpose and trust honesty of leadership. I wish all our socalled educated segment of the population and businessmen could be spirited like those simple common men. These selfish cowards are a curse and cancer for Bangladesh and its 13

people. They make excuses for being boot lickers and silent collaborators of the occupation forces. These people have no belongingness to our national flag and the spirit of independence. I became very close to Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, who was then the Bangladesh Government Ambassador at large, organizing the movement in UK. I fondly cherish our association for working together for free Bangladesh. At the request of the occupation forces of Bangladesh, the British Government terminated my scholarship for my involvement in organizing the freedom movement in UK. This made me sad and upset; but it had no effect on my spirit and organizational activity. The termination of scholarship helped me to learn about international politics, diplomacy and state-to-state bilateral relationship and commitment. Here humanity, righteousness, and self-strain have no place for making a decision. The world is a harsh place when geo-political interests come. We, the people of Bangladesh are blessed in the sense that dirty geo-politics failed to stop the birth of free and independent Bangladesh through a bloody war. The British Government and the common man in Britain were sympathetic and supportive to our organizational works and liberation war. When I requested for political asylum, I was informed that I could stay in Britain indefinitely. This was a decision not to open the floodgate for the opportunist asylum seekers on this pretext. By coming in contact and corresponding with the British MPs I learned a bit of parliamentary democracy at work. The politicians like Arthur Bottomley, Jeremy Thorpe, Roy Jenkins, Reg Prentice, Michael Foot, Peter Shore, Michael Barnes, Edward Lyons, Tom Torny and others have taught me how to attend to the smallest problem of any citizen. I wish our politicians could be a morsel of them. I wrote a long letter to twenty MPs of the British Parliament requesting them to intervene for reinstating my terminated scholarship. They all responded to my request. Especially the former Labor Minister Arthur Bottomley took my case with the then Overseas Development Administration Minister Mr. Richard Wood and the scholarship was reinstated. The Minister in his long letter explained the circumstances and how I was hounded by the occupation regime who had repeatedly asked the British Government to send me to Lahore to my new posting. I have always considered my involvement in the organization of Bangladesh Liberation Movement in UK in 1971 the most glorious time of life. Those are best moments of my life for being part of Bangladesh with heart and soul. I have literally felt and believed the great Sanskrit proverb: Mother and Motherland are holier than heaven (Janoni Janmabhumi Shargadapi Garioushi). Bless us all Almighty. 17. My Political Views for Bangladesh I admire Nehru for his vision of free India. I admire Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his tireless leadership for leading us to fight and make a supreme sacrifice for independent Bangladesh. He is an icon in the landscape of Bangladesh. I am yet to reconcile with the partition of India based on religious divide. Nevertheless, the region comprising of Bangladesh, West Bengal, Seven Sister States of North Eastern India, Bihar, Jharkhanda, Nepal and Bhutan with a population about 440 million shall have to be a borderless region some day soon for the free movement of goods and people by restoring the historical ties existing prior to partition to become socio-economically prosperous. The political divide created by partition has to be undone by going back to our thousand years of 14

regional bonds through common heritage and culture, unhindered trade and commerce, along with the free movement of people. This is my vision for the future of this region with constituent members upholding their individual political flag and political system. Let the foreign offices at Segunbagicha of Dhaka and South Block of Delhi change their mindsets and move forward to realize this goal ending all mistrust, discontent and socio-political instability existing in the region since partition. 18. My Mentors My first mentor was my father who was strictly disciplined and reserved. He taught me to write correct sentences in English as well as to solve problems of geometry. His plain and simple living has greatly influenced my way of life. My mentors from the chemical engineering department include: Professor M.A. Naser, Professor S.M.M Haque, Professor Iqbal Mahmud and Professor Nooruddin Ahmed. They all have polished a rough diamond to be more valuable as a chemical engineer. At BUET Dr. M.A. Rashid, Professor M.A Jabbar, Dr. Alimullah Khan and Dr. A. M. M. Zahoorul Haque were my mentors and idols. They all have passed away. I had the good fortune of interacting with them after I had started teaching at BUET. These great teachers have been iconic examples for the meaning of life, good work, achievement, character, diligence and dignity. As my mentor Professor Wilkinson has truly made me an independent and confident researcher. He has contributed a great deal to my becoming a down-to-earth process engineer. He has made me believe that I am good enough to stand alone and shine. 19. My Friends Like most us I had many friends in schools, college and universities. I get along well with my friends and I value friendship. They like my company. Amongst those from engineering student life who are close to me include Matin, Sattar, Nurul Islam, Jameel, Aftab, Morshed and many others. Matin is my chemical engineering classmate who rose to be the Chairman of BCSIR. Sattar was my roommate at South Hostel of Dhaka College and Sher-e-Bangla Hall at BUET. He retired as Chief Engineer of the R&H Department. Nurul Islam and Jameel are my chemical engineering classmates and we were in England about the same time for graduate studies. Dr. Islam is a professor of IAT at BUET while Dr. Jameel lives in the USA and is now retired. Aftab is a civil engineer of my batch and he runs a construction firm. Morshed is my chemical engineering classmate who rose to the position of Chairman of BCIC. All my friends are truly friends in need and deed. We all are a bunch of good guys and well-meaning people. During the liberation movement of 1971 those of us worked in the Yorkshire region in UK include: Musabbir Tarafder, Sattar Ali, Badiuzzaman, Salam, Nikhil, Enayetullah, Khairul Bashar, Mozammel Hoque, Malek, Sobhan Master, Zitu Mia, Sazzad Mia, Monu Mia, Tunu, Didar, Tofazzel, Joynal, Tota Mia, Nazrul, Taibur, Gazi and many others. Sattar, Zaman, Nikhil, and Enayet were PhD students at the University of Bradford, while Bashar and Mozammel were PhD students at Leeds University. The rest were Bangladeshi permanent residents in UK. Tarafdar was a schoolteacher at Bradford and now retired. Since then we have been very close at heart and our friendship of JAI BANGLA is forever, wherever we are. Dr. Sattar Ali retired as member of BCSIR while Dr. Bashar is now Pro-VC of North South University.

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20. As I see myself in the mirror I am an independent type of person. I have my own views about life and living; and am not afraid of voicing them candidly. I have incurred the displeasure of my superiors and friends for telling the truth to their face but I have considered it a moral obligation to speak so. This has not jeopardized my career as a teacher and my friendship. I have always lived a simple life. I am not materialistic. I live within my means. I am content with what I have. I have a successful and satisfying career. I have devoted my time and energy to do what I have wanted to do. I have always considered myself very lucky for being able to rise to the position of a university professor being descendent of a farmer. I am happy and humbled to be recognized as a Chemical Engineer. The industry people appreciate my professional works. I am not an expert and I am not an activist. I am a quiet worker and avoid publicity. My works are not for publicity and they are meant for professionals who practice engineering and not deliver rhetoric. Throughout my life I have believed in Fight to finish, never give up or give in. I consider myself always a learner. I have learnt and tried to learn from all around me. They are my teachers and guide. Learning is my life-long pursuit and I consider myself an apprentice engaged in engineering practice. I treat a human being as a complete human being. I have discovered humanity in crisis and only few are selfish. Life is beautiful if you do not confront nature. Nature gives you enough to be alive and well and if you have more, you simply waste. Happiness comes from self-content and humility. All my education has been at the expense of taxpayers money and I am indebted and grateful to my people I have always made a conscientious effort to pay back the debt. When I was appointed the Head of the department, my initiative to form the Chemical Engineering Alumni Association at BUET was welcomed by our graduates. The association was officially launched in 1989. It is now significantly supporting our chemical engineering program in kind and cash. It is now a vehicle for our graduates to pay back their debt to their alma mater. 21. Thank you BUET! If I take into account my engineering student life and my career here, I have been in BUET campus for more than forty years. We have been living in BUET residential areas for more than thirty five years .We are grateful and thankful to BUET for being able to raise our sons in this beautiful campus and environment. We are happy with our residence and facilities provided. Whoever has visited us, he or she has been impressed by our campus for its surrounding and greenery. Our grandchildren are in love with it and my younger grandson Shah-Ziyan lived his first two years with us in the campus. He was greatly fascinated by trees, flowers, fruits, birds and cats. Our neighbors have been wonderful as persons, colleagues and companions. We have been very close and supportive. When we will finally vacate this campus, we will carry with us sweet memories. We are grateful to you all and many thanks! My career with chemical engineering department as a teacher for more than thirty five years is a story of success and satisfaction. My colleagues both the senior and young are wonderfully nice persons with big heart. They have always been on my side. In spite of being abrasive and curt myself, I have found them all warm and graceful. I shall miss the 16

departmental Tea Club, a place for daily recuperation by venting out frustrations and anger first; and then cool down. Thank you my colleagues and forgive my excesses and limitations. The supporting members of the staff of chemical engineering have been very nice with me. They have been my responsible workhorses. I am grateful to you all and thank you! I have been close to many BUET colleagues across the departments irrespective of age. We have treated each other respectfully. We have been good companions and helpful. The BUET club has been the place for my past time in many evenings for adda and for playing with cards, squash etc.. Sweet memory to cherish; thank you all! Finally, I thank my students who have been my equal partners in studies and exploring our ideas to learn and understand better. They have been my treasured resource for whatever I have achieved. I have found them bright and smart. I am proud of them. Thank you all. Wish us well wherever we will be. Almighty bless us all. 22. What lies ahead? I have almost come to the end of talk. I have a few hard questions for me. Should I write my own epitaph? Should I engineer something with which I can vanish without leaving a trace on this planet? Have I been useful to this earth or I have wasted the earths limited resource to fatten me? Have I been living a worthy life? I regret for my omissions, mistakes and wastes. I have learned and earned everything in a hard way and I am always enviably fortunate to have Almightys blessings bestowed upon me. All praise be to Almighty. My future is unknown and I have been walking to the ultimate destination of life since birth. I do not know how and when the end will come. I shall accept the inevitable with smile. Though after the end of my association with BUET I have no plan to teach, I shall like to establish some kind of link with industry and practice engineering. I shall pursue my best pleasure of reading, writing and thinking as long as possible. My grandchildren have seen our roots and heard our stories. When they heard our stories of 1971 and our involvement; they were pleasantly surprised to learn that they belong to a family of brave people who had fought for their motherland. They are overwhelmed by learning that we in our teens and twenties took guns and grenades to fight for Bangladesh. They are proud of us all and they understand who we all are. What a way to be proudly recognized by our own grand children! Bless us all Almighty.

The lecture was delivered on June 18, 2011 at BUET.

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