FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering James R. Couper has been recognized for 50 years of service to the University of Arkansas’s chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS), which he has served as chairman and chair-elect. In the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, he served as secretary, chairman-elect, chairman, and alternate counselor, as well as on the E.V. Murphee Award Committee.

Beyond the ACS, Couper has made contributions in his field, and has demonstrated leadership and loyalty at all levels to the University of Arkansas and the many organizations where he holds membership.

Couper obtained bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. After graduation, he remained near St. Louis, spending several years working in industry, including the Monsanto Company. During that time, he developed a love of teaching.

In 1959, Couper joined the Department of Chemical Engineering as associate professor, just 15 years after the department was separated from the Department of Chemistry. In 1965, he was promoted to professor and served as administrative assistant in the Office of Research Coordination from 1965 to 1968. For the next decade, Couper served as chair of the department. He is known to have taught nearly every course in the chemical engineering curriculum.

Retirement in 1989 has not deterred Couper, who continues to be involved with the department where he team-teaches a course in technical administration. He also serves as president of M & J Enterprises and is a consultant for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. Couper is also the author of many books, including Process Engineering Economics, due out in 2003, and Structure of the Chemical Process Industries’ Infrastructure: Function and Economics (2000) with O. Thomas Beasley and William Penny.

Couper has always taken an active role in professional organizations by serving as chair or on committees of several of organizations, including Alpha Chi Sigma, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Association of Cost Engineers, the American National Standards Institute, the American Society for Engineering Education, the National Academy of Sciences, Omega Chi Epsilon, Omicron Delta Kappa, Sigma Xi and the Society of Rheology. He is also a Registered Professional Engineer in Arkansas and Missouri.

A Fellow in both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Institute of Chemists, Couper is included in the Who’s Who in American Education, Engineering, Engineering’s Engineers of Distinction, Frontier Science and Technology, the South and Southwest, and Society and Technology Today. Other awards and honors include induction into American Men and Women of Science, the International Biographical Society, Personalities of the South, the Society of Sigma XI and Tau Beta Pi.

The University of Arkansas’ section of the American Chemical Society will honor Couper for his service at a dinner on November 21 in Fayetteville.