April 3, 2023
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
I regret to share the news that Professor Emeritus Orville Sandall of our Department of Chemical Engineering passed away on February 20.
As one of the department’s founding faculty members, Professor Sandall played a key role in establishing and advancing Chemical Engineering on our campus, and was instrumental in building a strong foundation for the excellence and stature the chemical engineering program holds today.
Joining UC Santa Barbara in 1966, immediately after completing his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, Professor Sandall was among the Department’s core faculty, with Professors Robert Rinker, Jack Myers, and Duncan Mellichamp.
Distinguished for his expertise on heat and mass transfer, he co-authored with Professor Owen T. Hanna the textbook Computational Methods in Chemical Engineering. Published by Prentice Hall in 1995, it is still in use today.
After four decades of dedicated teaching and research, Professor Sandall retired from UC Santa Barbara in 2006. However, he returned to the University several times to assist in teaching ChE 132b, a course in numerical methods with applications in chemical engineering that is required for all chemical engineering undergraduates.
A beloved mentor, scholar and colleague, Professor Sandall touched the lives of countless students over the years. He received numerous accolades during his career, including his department’s award for Professor of the Year, which serves as an enduring testament to the admiration, respect, and esteem his students and colleagues held for him.
We are grateful for Professor Sandall’s lasting contributions to our campus and to the chemical engineering profession. And we are thankful for his dedication, wisdom, and guidance, which enabled our Department of Chemical Engineering to become one of the top programs in the country.
We offer our sincere condolences to Professor Sandall’s wife, Patricia Sullivan, their four children, and their families. Our campus flag was lowered in Professor Sandall’s honor on March 29.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor