It is customary in the United States and their academic departments, to have lecture series by which key researchers and educators from other institutions are invited to give seminars.  This is an important mechanism to exchange expertise and to provide the academic community an up-to-date account on research advances in other institutions.  These series are often supported by private companies or organizations such as Merck Sharp & Dohme (MS&D).

MS&D was created in January 1891 by George Merck, member of the German company E. Merck.  Ten years later, MS&D began the production of important documents such as the Merck Index and the Merck Market Report.  By that time, the company sales exceeded one-million dollars.  George W. Merck, son of George Merck, assumed the presidency of MS&D in 1925.  He was responsible for the establishment of the Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Division in 1933.  Throughout the years, MS&D has been merging itself strategically with other big companies such as DuPont.  These opportunities gave MS&D the ability to bring valuable products for today’s growing society, not just in Puerto Rico, but also around the world.  All these achievements make MS&D a special company, but what really makes them an outstanding company is their contributions to the academic society.  Among those contributions is the Merck Sharp & Dohme Lecture Series in Chemical Engineering.

During the early 1970s engineer Henry Marrero and MS&D PR operations plant manager engineer John Ashby presented the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (ChE-UPRM) an idea for creating seminars about innovative topics in chemical engineering research and applications. With this in mind Dr. Raul Chao, former ChE department chair, submitted a formal proposal to the Merck Foundation requesting grant money to establish a yearly lecture series. As a result, the ChE-UPRM was able to establish the Merck Sharp & Dohme Lecture Series (MS&DLS) in 1972 and it has continued without interruptions ever since. 

The purpose of the grant is to exchange new technical and scientific developments among those who wish to explore in depth a particular research area in Chemical Engineering.  The grant allowed our department to invite distinguished scientists from academic and industrial sectors in Chemical Engineering.  This series has offered our graduate and undergraduate students an unparalleled opportunity to know first-hand what these leading scientists are doing.  As an indicative of this, most of the authors of the text books used in our department have been invited as lecturers in this Series.

In 2002 our department proudly celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the MS&D Lecture Series, and today we feel grateful for the sponsorship of Merck Sharp & Dohme Química de Puerto Rico.  We are now on track for the 40th Anniversary so please stay tuned!