The 2007 annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was recently held in Salt Lake City. This meeting coincided with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of Utah. It also roughly corresponded to the 50th anniversary of the start of Dr. Andrew Jenike’s pioneering work at that university in understanding the gravity flow of bulk solids. 

AIChE’s Particle Technology Forum sponsored two sessions at this meeting commemorating this event. One was a Jenike memorial session, and the other a panel discussion concerning Jenike’s legacy.

In recognition of this occasion, the British Materials Handling Board created a special award. Because of his outstanding contribution that transformed the storage and handling of bulk solids from an empirical industry to a science, the BMHB decided to honor Andrew Jenike as the leading Bulk Technology Pioneer of the 20th Century.

“The contributions of Andrew Jenike to fill the void in our understanding of the rheology of particulate solids in gravity flow were thorough and comprehensive,” said Lyn Bates, Director of BMHB. “His pioneering work, published in Bulleting 123 of the Utah Experimental Station in 1964, remains the most quoted reference of all papers that are published in the field of bulk technology.

“The result of Jenike’s outstanding work was to change the design of bulk storage hoppers, silos, and other storage and processing vessels from an empirical technique to a formal engineering procedure with a predictable outcome.”

Dr. John Carson, president of Jenike & Johanson, said, “We are very proud of the accomplishments of our founder, Andrew Jenike. He set the guiding principles for our firm that have allowed us to grow and prosper for over 40 years so that we can continually improve our ability to serve our clients.”