Obituary: Arthur M. Squires, died May 18, 2012--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Arthur and I worked in Process Development Department of Hydrocarbon Research Inc. in New York, late in 1946 after I graduated from Princeton University. HRI was an early company in ChE R&D, spanning the entire range of concept development to plant erection. Head of Process Development was Manson Benedict.

My father died in 1946. So I returned to China in 1948, and in 1952 I rejoined HRI. At that time, Arthur succeeded Manson to head Process Development. So Arthur and I had over 4 years working on various innovative programs, mostly dealing with particulate systems, e.g., high-pressure partial oxidation of anthracite silt for making ammonia, low-temperature packed-bed regenerator for air separation, and cross-flow moving bed for hypersorption. While I was with HRI, there was a US directive that Chinese nationals with science or engineering background should not return to China. I waited until 1956 when relaxation of the directive came into effect. So I took my family returning to China.

Many years passed, until in 1975, Beijing sent a group of friendship representatives to Japan. Arthur was in Japan at the same time, and somehow he found my name in the Chinese group. So, we met, after 19 years. During that time, Arthur joined the City College of City University of New York, where he developed fast fluidization. Our meeting in Japan led to renewed exchanges. The first of these was the 1st Joint China–USA ChE Conference in 1982, where Arthur and I co-chaired the sessions on fluidization. In the early 1990s, I organized Chinese scholars to write a book on fast fluidization in China and the editors of Advances in Chemical Engineering were prepared to accept the manuscript, provided that there would be at least one international author. Arthur kindly filled that vacancy and wrote the first chapter, Origins of the Fast Fluid Bed. For writing this chapter, he traveled between Blacksburg and Washington several times to consult original archives. While in China, he suggested me to write a book on all I had done in fluidization since my return to China in 1956, and offered me a guest professorship at Blacksburg. Without the quietness and detachment from daily duties at Blacksburg, I would not possibly have written my book, Idealized and Bubbleless Fluidization, published in 1994. At Blacksburg, Arthur studied vibrated fluidized bed and invented the panel filter, using periodically renewable sand-filled pockets to remove fine particles from gas streams.

In Arthur's last letter written some 3 months before his passing, he described his health. Though suffering, he was still high-spirited to comment on Shakespeare. But, he had no time to respond to my reply to his letter. To this day, I remember Arthur's well-wishing article, FORUM: the future of PARTICUOLOGY, in the first issue of the first volume of this journal, looking forward to China's contribution.

Arthur left us as a great engineer (Member, National Academy of Engineering; Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, to concentrate uranium via gaseous diffusion), a great scholar (University Distinguished Professor at City College of City University of New York, and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), a great literati (Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences), and a great friend.

Rest in peace, Arthur, you will be well remembered and revered in this part of the world.

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