Dr. Kenneth John Bell, Kerr-McGee Chair Emeritus and Regents Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, passed peacefully, on Monday, April 17, 2023, at home surrounded by family. He was preceded in 2020 by the death of his wife Mrs. Karen Bell, whom we all enjoyed interacting with during the Heat Transfer Conferences.
Dr. Bell earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Case Institute of Technology (1951), M.Ch.E (1953), and PhD.Ch.E (1955) from the University of Delaware.
As a distinguished scientist, engineer, and educator, the legendary Dr. Bell has made his mark in all these categories in heat transfer, particularly heat exchangers and two-phase flow with heat transfer. Dr. Bell's major technical areas of interest were fluid mechanics; heat transfer; and heat exchanger selection, application, design, and troubleshooting in the process and energy and environmental control industries. This interest was initiated during his graduate work in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware. His research was on shell-and-tube heat exchangers, with Professor Allan Colburn and Professor Olaf Berglin as mentors. That research culminated in the Bell–Delaware method for the design of heat exchangers. He has over 100 publications including books, chapters in books, and articles.
Dr. Bell had a long, successful career as a chemical engineer. He started at General Electric at the Hanford Operations, Richland, WA, where he conducted laboratory and in-reactor testing of advanced fuel elements. Then he joined the Chemical Engineering Department at Case Western University (then Case Institute of Technology) and worked for 5 years. During that time, he spent 6 months as a visiting faculty at Oak Ridge National Laboratory working on reactor technology. Then in 1961, he was enticed to join Oklahoma State University.
As an educator, Dr. Bell was a major advisor for 30 Ph.D. and 45 M.S. students. His graduate students have been highly successful. Dr. Bell is an outstanding role model for engineering educators. He spent a great deal of time preparing for his classes and introducing innovative methods and practical materials in his classes. He cared about every one of his students and treated each of them with respect. He developed many valuable graduate and undergraduate courses. A partial list includes Process Heat Transfer, Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics, Two Phase Flow and Heat Transfer, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, Advanced Nuclear Engineering, and Process Design and Chemical Engineering Design. It is worth noting that his famous course Process Heat Transfer has benefited engineers all over the United States, the American Continent, and Europe. His Process Heat Transfer loose leaf binders (updated annually) have been referenced in a large number of technical articles.
Dr. Bell was a registered professional engineer. Large companies all over the United States, such as Chevron, Exxon, and Phillips, and international companies overseas, such as Mitsubishi (Japan) and ABB Global Engineering (Norway), sought out his expertise. He consulted with over 60 government agencies, organizations, and industries from all over the world. He was frequently sought out as an expert witness in major lawsuits involving large companies.
Dr. Bell was a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He had extensive service to the heat transfer community. He served as a Chair of the AIChE Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion Division and several other AIChE committees. He also served in numerous heat transfer conferences organizing committees including as Acting Chair, Vice Chair, and Program Co-chair of these and other conferences. He served for a long period in two ASME performance test code committees (PTC-30 and PTC-12.5).
Dr. Bell was a Founding Editor (with Dr. Geoffrey Hewitt, Dr. Ernst Schlunder, and Dr. Jerry Taborek) of Heat Transfer Engineering, a journal that publishes research papers with a slant on heat transfer applications. With the help of Dr. William (Bill) Begell, the journal was launched. Since the inception of the journal and for 18 years, Dr. Bell served as its Editor-in-Chief, before passing the Editor-in-Chief torch to Dr. Afshin Ghajar. Dr. Bell's editorials, which appeared in almost every issue during his tenure, are classics that relate to the practicing engineer in industry.
In 1978, Dr. Bell received the Donald Q. Kern Award (fifth recipient and youngest recipient), and in 2003, he received the Max Jakob Memorial Award. He is one of the few who received both awards.
Other Comments
Dr. Bell's firstborn, Lorna, followed in his footsteps. She studied Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Then, she went on to work for an air-cooled heat exchanger manufacturer. She performed thermal design, cost estimating, quoting, project management, etc., with emphasis on thermal design and training the younger engineers. Dr. Bell was very proud of her accomplishment and that she was an outstanding engineer. He used to say that she practiced what he taught.
Dr. Bell was a voracious reader. He especially loved reading history. In the last few years, he developed an interest in cosmology and the origins of the universe. He liked collecting minerals. His wife had a particular interest in collecting Native American pottery, baskets, art, and bells.
When I was a student, I heard the bolded expression lots of times “One of Dr. Bell's favorite expressions is: ‘In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.’ He regularly descends into the valley of practical heat transfer, armed with theoretical understanding that only partially describes the phenomena encountered. However, when his 50 years of experience is added in, he has more than a one-eyed look at the problem—certainly more than most consultants,” quoted from the distinguished Dr. Arthur E. Bergles.
Dr. Allen Colburn was Dr. Bell's graduate advisor. Unfortunately, Dr. Colburn died the morning Dr. Bell defended his Ph.D. thesis. The sad news was kept from Dr. Bell till after his successful defense of his thesis. One of Dr. Bell's comments is that his performance was not the cause of the death of Dr. Colburn. It should be noted that Dr. Bell completed his Ph.D. in only 2 years.
Personal Comments by Dr. John Howell, Dr. Bell’s First Graduate Student (Graduated 1962)
I was Ken Bell's first Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve (then Case Institute of Technology). I had taken his undergraduate heat transfer course in the Chemical Engineering Department, which sparked my interest in the subject. Ken was very tall, and I remember well how he was able to teach in front of the class with one foot on top of a table! He had obtained research funding to conduct studies in nuclear reactor heat transfer, and my M.S. and Ph.D. research were in that field.
Ken worked closely with Donald Q. Kern, who established the D. Q. Kern Award in AIChE. Kern had published the influential reference Process Heat Transfer in 1950 and was working on a new edition. The first dollar I earned as an engineer was when Kern, through Ken Bell, asked if I could do an efficiency plot for a particular exchanger type that required the numerical solution. I did so using the IBM punch-card computer at Case. Kern remarked that if every graph in the book cost him that much he could not afford to publish.
After I graduated and went to work for NASA, I had a chance after a few years to go into teaching at a Mechanical Engineering school. I called Ken and asked whether he thought switching fields was a good idea, and his reply was “They need all of the help they can get.”
I chaired the 2003 Max Jakob Award Committee and had to recuse myself from the committee vote when Ken was nominated, but he won in any case. I was very honored to be able to present him with the award at the 2003 National Heat Transfer Conference (NHTC).
Some Personal Comments by Amanie Abdelmessih, One of Dr. Bell’s Former Ph.D. students (Graduated 1987)
I was fortunate to either attend or assist in grading the following courses: Process Heat Transfer, Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics, Two Phase Flow and Heat Transfer, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, Advanced Nuclear Engineering, and Process Design and Chemical Engineering Design. Having been a graduate assistant gave me a chance to notice Dr. Bell's high ethics, and how much he cared about all his students and their success. At Oklahoma State University, students who wanted to learn enrolled in Dr. Bell's classes. His grades were not inflated, and his students appreciated his fairness. In fact, in my teaching career, Dr. Bell has been my role model, and I believe this is why The Monks of Saint Martin's awarded me the Outstanding Faculty Award, when I taught at Saint Martin's University. Currently, as a faculty member, I compare colleagues and previous faculty with Dr. Bell, and he definitely surpasses all. The main reason is that Dr. Bell's connects theory with practice, unlike many other educators who go into deep theory without explaining how it can be applied. Other faculty members choose to go all hands on without the theory.
Dr. Bell read his students' theses numerous times. I recall for my thesis, Dr. Bell read my work throughout the various stages not only for technical content but also for style and grammar. Years ago, after graduating, while performing research, a thesis of one of his last graduate students fell into my hands. I could not help but notice Dr. Bell's superior editorial work.
Dr. Tom Rabas, previously at Argonne National Laboratory mentioned to me that Dr. Bell, when reviewing articles, he goes through them and rewrites them to the author, i.e., spending a great deal of time in reviewing.
Dr. Bell attended and hooded his graduate students. Figure 1 shows Dr. Bell going to the stage to hood Dr. Amanie Abdelmessih, one of his latest Ph.D. Graduates.
Dr. Bell walking to the stage at Oklahoma State University to hood his graduate student Amanie Abdelmessih
Dr. Bell walking to the stage at Oklahoma State University to hood his graduate student Amanie Abdelmessih
Dr. Bell's former graduate students looked forward to seeing him at various heat transfer conferences. Dr. and Mrs. Bell interacted with his former students outside the conference hours. Figure 2 shows Dr. and Mrs. Bell.
Dr. and Mrs. Bell interacting outside of the Heat Transfer hours with his former graduate student Dr. Abdelmessih
Dr. and Mrs. Bell interacting outside of the Heat Transfer hours with his former graduate student Dr. Abdelmessih
Comment by Dr. Ohadi
I did not have direct collaboration with Prof. Kenneth Bell, but being in the heat exchanger field, I was always impressed with the depth and breadth of his pioneering work in heat exchanger sizing/rating and performance evaluation—world renowned expert and authority by any standards. Above all what impressed me the most was his happy and humble personality. Anytime I met him at the conferences and events I could approach him and ask questions, and he would take time to discuss and offer his opinion. The heat transfer community will forever miss Professor Bell's highly distinguished intellect, engaging and resourceful presence, momentum-building character, and affable personality.
Comment by Dr. Sherif
Dr. Bell was a very special person. I have been privileged to interact with him on several occasions over the years. People like him are rare not just because of his professional accomplishments but also because of his kind personality and the way he dealt with his students and professional colleagues alike.
