Research Stars Light the Path - College of Engineering - University ...

CAMPAIGN UW: CREATING FUTURES 2000~2008Beyond everyone’s wildest dreams” is how Steve Rogel(ChemE ’65) sums up the great success of CampaignUW for the University and the College of Engineering. Aschair of Engineering’s Campaign Executive Committeehe’s had a hand on the wheel of the ambitious initiative,and in encouraging alumni to get on board.“More than 5,400 alumni, individuals, and organizationsmade first-time gifts,” Rogel said. “That is asheartwarming as it was essential, given the magnitudeof the campaign. We proved engineers can open theirwallets,” he added with satisfaction.More than doubling the number of student andfaculty endowments merits even louder toots of thehorn. “We have excellent leadership at the college andwith more support, we can keep attracting the talentnecessary to move to the next level of achievement andrecognition,” he said.As the campaign headed into its closing months,Rogel and his wife, Connie, contributed generously tothat effort by establishing an endowed professorship inChemical Engineering. They made the gift at a significant“Support forgraduate studentsSteven and Connie RogelEndowed Fellowship inChemical EngineeringMicron Gifts Further InnovationA quest for ever faster and smaller semiconductor devicesdrives the need to develop and incorporate new combinationsof materials in chip structure. Boise-based Micron Technology,Inc. and the Micron Foundation provided advancedequipment and funding to launch the Micron Laboratoryfor Combinatorial Materials Exploration (CME) in RobertsHall, directed by Fumio Ohuchi,professor of materials scienceand engineering. This yearMicron provided additionalfunds to set up a new X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopymachine in a Micron CME labin the Physics Building, alsoused by Ohuchi and his team.14 TREND • Vol 58:2 • Autumn 2008transition time in their lives. Rogel retired in April after11 years as CEO of Weyerhaueser, though he continuesserving as chairman of the board of directors. He andConnie, an alumna of Seattle University and memberof its board of regents, have built a waterfront home inPort Ludlow, where they plan to enjoy their boat andcontinuing proximity to Seattle and their alma maters.They’ve had quite a journey from Ritzville, a smallwheat-farming community in Eastern Washington whereboth were born and raised. The son of the local Buickand GMC dealer, Rogel was servicing cars and trucksby age 13 and running heavy farm machinery not longafter. Gritty summer manual-labor jobs convinced himthat earning a UW chemical engineering degree wouldbroaden his career opportunities.A summer internship at St. Regis Paper Co. drewhim into the forest products industry, and followinggraduation, assignments that would take him fromthe southeastern U.S. to Canada. He joined Portland’sWillamette Industries in 1972 and worked his way upthe ranks to CEO in 1995, gaining a reputation as astrategic thinker with a sharp eye for cost efficiencies.From there it was a short jaunt north to Federal Way in1997 and the significantly bigger arena of Weyerhaeuser.“I owe so much of my success to my engineeringeducation that I felt a need to return something tothe UW,” Rogel said. He believes the Rogel endowedprofessorship comes at an exciting transition time forthe Chemical Engineering program.“The stopwatch and bucket brigade measurementof flows and volumes is over,” Rogel said. He pointsto dramatic changes in the past 10-15 years, as thediscipline has moved off a primary focus on industrialprocesses and into an interdisciplinary juncture withbioengineering and medicine and work on the molecularand nanotechnology levels.“It’s a new world, and I hope our endowed professorshipwill enable the department to hire or retain exceptionalfaculty who will forge a leadership role for thedepartment in this area.”