Dr. Charles E. (Chuck) Glatz, University Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has announced his retirement after 40 years of research, education and leadership at Iowa State University.
Originally from Rochester, NY, Glatz came to Iowa State in 1975, shortly after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He was appointed to a five-year term as department chair in 1997, and then agreed to a three-year extension, leading the department until 2005. He also served as interim Dean of the College of Engineering for a six-month period in 2005.
Glatz is a nationally recognized researcher in bioprocessing, with work in fermentation, product recovery and byproduct utilization. He was involved in many research projects at Iowa State, including leading a team which secured an Iowa State University Biotechnology Council and National Science Foundation grant to study processes to reduce costs for the production of vaccines and enzymes using fermentation; and a 2002 team project funded by the USDA which focused on the recovery and purification of recombinant proteins from plants.
During his tenure as chair of the department the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute was launched. It included a number of centers performing work in all of the university’s colleges, as well as involving 30 departments and a number of affiliated organizations dedicated to generating knowledge and practices for the creation of valuable traits in Iowa crops using genomics and bioinformatics. The Department of Chemical Engineering played a critical part in the development of the institute.
Glatz was also involved in the name change for his department, from Chemical Engineering to Chemical and Biological Engineering, which became official in 2005, as part of a national trend to recognize the increasing importance of biochemical-related study in the university arena.
He was honored with a reception May 7.