Since its beginnings (first decade of the 20th
century), chemical engineering has undergone several
and fundamental transformations. Indeed, the
affirmation of the concept of “unit operation” (distillation,
extraction, filtration, crystallization, and so
on) marked the definitive detachment of chemical
engineering from the original chemistry frame1.
The idea that each “unit operation” was governed
by its own distinct principles was definitively overcome
in 1960 when some valuable researchers (in
particular Neal R. Amundson, Rutherford Aris, R.
Byron Bird, Edwin N. Lightfoot and Warren E.
Stewart) affirmed that all the “unit operations” are
connected by a unique leading concept represented
by the mass, energy and momentum balance. This
situation represented the ideal background for another
important transformation of Chemical Engineering,
i.e the development of the so called Biomedical
Engineering1. Although a clear evidence of
the extension of the cultural horizons of Chemical
Engineering was felt only in the mid 1970s, the
seed of Biochemical Engineering must be searched
in the early 1960s when valuable researchers (such
as, for example, Elmer L. Gaden, Arthur B.
Metzner, R. Byron Bird, Edward W. Merrill) understood
that the concept of balance (mass, energy and
momentum) could be profitably applied also to
knowledge fields, such as medicine, biology, pharmacy
and psychology, that were, traditionally, far
from Chemical Engineering. In so doing, these researchers
introduced the concept of interdisciplinary
that is so important in the modern research and
that represents, according to me, the winning strategy
also for the future.
