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Retired professor鈥檚 passion rooted in academic engagement

Retired professor鈥檚 passion rooted in academic engagement

Photo caption:听Faculty member David Clough presentating research听at a conference (early 1980s).听

Grad Student Dave Clough with computer system he built for his PhD research (1970s).

Grad Student Dave Clough with the computer system
he built for his PhD research (1970s).

Dave Clough (left) Tasmania with co-author Steve Chapra

Dave Clough (left) in Tasmania with co-author Steve
Chapra.

For most people, retirement means relaxation. For Professor Emeritus David Clough, it鈥檚 an opportunity for productivity and service.

Since retiring in 2017 from CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Clough has collaborated on three textbooks. He鈥檚 also regularly involved with students, participating in PhD committees and undergraduate activities alike.听

鈥淪taying involved with young people keeps my mind active in engineering and science,鈥 Clough said. 鈥淚 find immense value in remaining engaged with the department and with writing about technical topics through textbooks. I could never find the time for the latter during my faculty career.鈥

Clough鈥檚 long history with CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering began almost 60 years ago. He earned an MS in chemical engineering in 1969 from the university, followed by a PhD in 1975. That same year he joined the chemical and biological engineering faculty; he has remained a departmental fixture ever since.

To this day Clough maintains an office in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building and welcomes consultations with both faculty and students.听听

He assists with the senior design courses alongside Professor Alan Weimer and Teaching Professor Wendy Young, offering workshops on computing as well as advising student design groups.听 He also creates screencast tutorials, including a current project, a series of nine that help senior-level students learn three software packages 鈥 MATLAB, Python and Excel.

"Dave has been a wonderful resource for design students for years," Young said, noting that he recently created AutoCAD screencasts to aid students in creating P&IDs (Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams) and PFDs (Process Flow Diagrams).

With the assistance of Dana Hauschulz, a retired electronics engineer from the department, Clough renovated a portable module that provides students with hands-on experience in setting up and tuning control systems. Teaching Assistant Professor Ehsan Keyvani plans to incorporate the module听into CHEN 4570 Instrumentation & Process Control lab exercises. Notably, Clough developed the CHEN 4570 course and taught it more than 30 times throughout his career.

Clough also advises graduate students in their research. He鈥檚 also been involved in several PhD committees and consults with doctoral candidates on applied statistics and experimental design.

Since retirement, he has collaborated on three textbooks with Professor Emeritus Steve Chapra of Tufts University. The first, 鈥,鈥 adapted Chapra鈥檚 popular MATLAB-based numerical methods text into Python. The second, 鈥,鈥 draws from the two professors鈥 decades of teaching the Introduction to Engineering computing course, which they introduced to CU 麻豆影院 in the late 1980s. Their latest collaboration, 鈥,鈥 is based on 30 years of teaching spreadsheet problem-solving to engineering students and professionals.

For his next project, Clough will collaborate with Chapra in a new edition of Chapra鈥檚 MATLAB-based numerical methods text.

Later this spring, Clough and Weimer will present their Most Improved Student award, which includes a monetary prize donated by the two professors. Originating in the late 1990s, the annual award recognizes an undergraduate student who has demonstrated a dramatic improvement in academic performance throughout their time in the department.听听

"Dave听is an听incredible professor who never stops helping," Weimer said.听 "Thank you for all听you have done, are doing听and will do in the future."