Anyone who has earned a degree from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder in the last 42 years has probably interacted with Professor Dave Clough—and there’s a good chance he remembers you by name.
With an encyclopedic memory and a knack for building close connections with students, Clough has become a popular educator during his lengthy career at CU. What some don’t realize is that he also spent six years as an associate dean in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and 12 years as CU Boulder’s faculty athletics representative, the campus’s official liaison to the Pac-12 and NCAA.
As he prepares for retirement this summer, Clough is reflecting on how much the department has changed since he joined the faculty in 1975.
When Clough was starting out as a professor, managing one or two active research grants and three or four graduate students at once was standard, coupled with a heavy teaching load. Today, some chemical and biological engineering professors manage research labs of 20 or more people and net millions of dollars in research funding every year.
The department’s educational methodologies also have shifted alongside its research efforts. In the mid-90s, standard lecture formats began to wane, and Clough transformed his courses to get students more actively involved in the classroom. Today, a typical course might include a half-hour of lecture and 45 minutes of hands-on learning activities.
If one thing hasn’t changed during his career, Clough said, it’s the work ethic of his budding engineers–despite the criticisms often leveled at Millennials.
“Our discipline has always tended to select for students who are really hard workers and problem-solvers and who love science and math—that is a common characteristic,” Clough said.
And those hard-working students often find that their post-graduation prospects have expanded. Clough’s first cohorts almost always headed toward the chemical or petroleum industry. Today, graduates still follow those routes, but they also find success in food and beverage manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, environmental work or in medical or legal fields.
So what about Clough’s own “post-graduation” plans?
He’ll start with an eight-day cruise on the Rhine this July and as much golf and fly fishing as his body will allow. But old habits die hard; he’s also slated to teach several short courses for working engineers, including two trips to the Middle East. And you can be sure he’ll keep in touch with the department he called home for four decades.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” Clough said. “Certainly, life has happened along the way, but overall I have a lot to be thankful for. CU has stood by me for decades, and that creates unshakeable loyalty.”
Watch for the CU Engineering Magazine, arriving in your mailbox this spring, for an in-depth profile of Dave Clough. Not an alum? Request a copy of the magazine.