Ken Starling Inducted Into Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame
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| From left: Roger Harrison, Lance Lobban, Ken Starling, Barbara Starling, Musharraf Zaman and Sridhar Radhakrishnan |
Starling received a bachelor of science degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&I University, a master of science degree in Gas Engineering and a doctoral degree in Gas Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Starling’s experience includes service for Conroe Drilling Company, Republic Pipeline Company, research engineer for the Institute of Gas Technology, senior research engineer for Esso Production Research Company, planning group of Electric Power Research Institute, and professional consulting.
Starling taught training courses for
many years with the John M. Campbell Company, which included gas conditioning
and processing, pipeline design and natural gas measurement. In the academic
arena, Starling was a Welch Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University; assistant
professor, associate professor, director or the School of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science, George Lynn Cross Research Professor, interim vice provost
for Research Administration at the University of Oklahoma; visiting professor,
University of Leuven in Belgium; and visiting researcher at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Starling currently
is chairman of Starling Associates, Inc.
Starling was named a fellow of AIChE in 1996, and in 2003 was awarded the Gas Processors Association’s Don Katz Award for outstanding accomplishments in gas processing research and technology, and for excellence in engineering education.
Starling retired in January 1995 from CBME following nearly three decades at the University of Oklahoma. Starling's most outstanding contributions to the chemical engineering profession have included two well-know equations of state that bear his name: the Carnahan-Starling equation of state, a closed form solution of the hard sphere fluid compressibility that is the basis for several extended van der Waals equations; and the BWRS (Benedict-Webb-Rubin-Starling) equation of state, resulting from his work to develop more accurate equations of state for systems of interest to chemical engineering.
His hard sphere equation of state has been of prime importance even beyond his profession, to physicists and chemical physicists as a theoretical tool to separate hard sphere molecular interactions from other short-range molecular interactions.
Prior to joining the CBME faculty, Starling gained considerable industrial and research experience at Republic Pipeline Company, the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago, Esso Production Research Company in Houston, and at the Electric Power Research Institute in Calif.
Starling joined what was then known as the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science faculty at OU as an assistant professor in 1966. He was promoted to associate professor in 1969 and served as school director 1974-75. He was promoted to George Lynn Cross Research Professor in 1978 and served as vice provost for Research Administration from 1978-79.
Starling's many honors include the Mid-America State Universities Association Honor Lectureship in 1977 and 1978 and the OU College of Engineering Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research in 1981. Starling served on the editorial review board of Energy Progress, and as director of the AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division. He has chaired numerous technical sessions at national meetings of AIChE and was a member of the national program committee from 1971 through 1977.
Starling has long been active in continuing education for engineers in the oil and gas industry through affiliation with the John Campbell Company, as chairman of the executive committee of the International School of Hydrocarbon Measurement from 1981 to 1992, and through his own company, Starling Associates, Inc., which applies expertise to implementing software into the oil and gas industry's real-time measurement and rapid accounting systems to meet the 1992 industry standards set out in the American Gas Association Reports numbers 3 and 8. Starling published more than 100 papers and a book, Fluid Thermodynamic Properties for Light Petroleum Systems.
Starling was named a fellow of AIChE in 1996, and in 2003 was awarded the Gas Processors Association’s Don Katz Award for outstanding accomplishments in gas processing research and technology, and for excellence in engineering education.
Starling retired in January 1995 from CBME following nearly three decades at the University of Oklahoma. Starling's most outstanding contributions to the chemical engineering profession have included two well-know equations of state that bear his name: the Carnahan-Starling equation of state, a closed form solution of the hard sphere fluid compressibility that is the basis for several extended van der Waals equations; and the BWRS (Benedict-Webb-Rubin-Starling) equation of state, resulting from his work to develop more accurate equations of state for systems of interest to chemical engineering.
His hard sphere equation of state has been of prime importance even beyond his profession, to physicists and chemical physicists as a theoretical tool to separate hard sphere molecular interactions from other short-range molecular interactions.
Prior to joining the CBME faculty, Starling gained considerable industrial and research experience at Republic Pipeline Company, the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago, Esso Production Research Company in Houston, and at the Electric Power Research Institute in Calif.
Starling joined what was then known as the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science faculty at OU as an assistant professor in 1966. He was promoted to associate professor in 1969 and served as school director 1974-75. He was promoted to George Lynn Cross Research Professor in 1978 and served as vice provost for Research Administration from 1978-79.
Starling's many honors include the Mid-America State Universities Association Honor Lectureship in 1977 and 1978 and the OU College of Engineering Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research in 1981. Starling served on the editorial review board of Energy Progress, and as director of the AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division. He has chaired numerous technical sessions at national meetings of AIChE and was a member of the national program committee from 1971 through 1977.
Starling has long been active in continuing education for engineers in the oil and gas industry through affiliation with the John Campbell Company, as chairman of the executive committee of the International School of Hydrocarbon Measurement from 1981 to 1992, and through his own company, Starling Associates, Inc., which applies expertise to implementing software into the oil and gas industry's real-time measurement and rapid accounting systems to meet the 1992 industry standards set out in the American Gas Association Reports numbers 3 and 8. Starling published more than 100 papers and a book, Fluid Thermodynamic Properties for Light Petroleum Systems.
