In Memoriam: William Curtis Conner, Jr.

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William Curtis Conner, Jr., emeritus professor of chemical engineering, died May 30. Conner taught in the Department of Chemical Engineering for 44 years, from 1979 until his retirement in 2023.

A remembrance published by the College of Engineering on Sept. 6 notes that “Conner conducted research in heterogenous catalysis with a focus on understanding fundamental, and often controversially discussed, phenomena, such as gas adsorption in porous media, hydrogen spillover, the compensation effect and the influence of microwaves on catalysis. His work was at the forefront of the catalysis field, both regarding principal questions as well as objectives, where he targeted biomass and methane conversion in his late career.”

“Curt was an original thinker, a very creative researcher, and an enthusiastic and beloved member of the catalysis and reaction engineering community,” Distinguished Professor and chemical engineering Department Head Dimitrios Maroudas says. “He will be greatly missed and remembered very fondly by the broader chemical engineering community.”

The complete remembrance of Conner by the College of Engineering can be found here.