Obituary Derek Geldart
I learned of Professor Geldart's death with great sadness as I was privileged to know him for as many years as I have been involved with powder handling and have worked together on projects and a series of seminars on 'Getting started in Bulk Technology'. His technical contribution on fluidisation is well known by his teaching and publiations and is immortalised by his frequently cited chart. However, his personal warmth and inherent kindness are the characteristics by which those who knew him personally will be longest remembered. Our loss is small compared to that of his family, to whom our deepest condolencies are advanced.
Lyn Bates ■
Obituary Derek Geldart
With deepest regret we learn of the death of Professor Derek Geldart.
We have lost a very great scientist and an engineer.
Prof. Andrzej Kmie
Politechnika Wroclawska
Wroclaw, Poland ■
Obituary Derek Geldart
Obituary Derek Geldart
5th December 2012
Derek Geldart Emeritus Professor of Powder Technology in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, has died aged 81.
After graduating from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in Mechanical Engineering, Professor Geldart studied for a further two years for a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering. He then worked as a Chemical Engineer for six years in Research and Development for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, in various locations, before joining the University of Bradford.
Best known for his research into fluidization, he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1973 for a dissertation which included a diagram for characterising powders according to their fluidization and aerated flow behaviour. This is now used world-wide and is known as the Geldart Fluidization Diagram. He had a particular interest in fine powders and won major research grants from international oil, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies, and from other funding bodies such as EPSRC, EPRI, and IFPRI.
He has more than 200 publications in books, academic journals, and conference proceedings and, at the 8th International Engineering Foundation Conference on Fluidization in 1995, he was awarded a medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the technology over the past 25 years.
Professor Geldart, who was a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, also acted as a consultant for many well-known companies in the UK, Continental Europe, and the USA. He was a member of the Editorial Board of Powder Technology, an International Journal on the Science and Technology of Wet and Dry Particulate Systems.
Professor Geldart was born in Stockton Upon Tees on 4 September 1931 and attended Oxbridge Lane Boys School, Holy Trinity Higher Grade School and Stockton Grammar School. He leaves a wife of 56 years, Margaret, and two sons Jonathan and Andrew as well as three grandchildren. He died peacefully in Harrogate District Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a stroke.
Tributes have come in from colleagues and industry specialists from around the world.
A memorial service will held be at Pannal Methodist Chapel on Friday 14th December 2012 at 1.30pm after a private committal service. It was his wish that there be no flowers but that people wear bright clothes as a celebration of his life. ■