Meet the Professor: Dr. Ed Clausen

Dr. Ed Clausen, professor of chemical engineering and associate department head, began teaching at the University of Arkansas in 1981, following his time as an assistant professor at Tennessee Tech University.

Inroduction to engineering
A number of people, family, teachers and advisors, influenced his decision to become an engineer. As a sophomore in high school, he knew what career he wanted to pursue.

“By that time, I was pretty sure I would be an engineer,” he said. “My uncle was a mechanical engineer and my brother-in-law was an electrical engineer.” His dad also expressed an interest and approval in the profession.

“I didn’t sit down and talk with them about it…it just seemed like something I would want to do.”

Clausen’s high school math and physics teacher attended the University of Missouri-Rolla, where Clausen would later earn his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate. “He had studied electrical engineering and that was all he talked about,” he said. “So I put this together,” all the positive experiences of engineering that surrounded him, to which he added a growing interest in chemistry.

Influential Engineer
Although many people impacted Clausen’s career, “my influential mentor was probably my grad advisor, Jim Gaddy,” he said.

“He was the professor that I conducted research with…the one that convinced me to get my Ph.D., and the one that convinced me, after four years (of teaching at Tennessee Tech,) to come to the U of A,” Clausen said.

University of Arkansas Experience
Clausen has taught at the University of Arkansas for thirty years, which gives him a unique vantage point as a professor.

“The thing about teaching in the same place for a long time is that it never bothered me to teach students so much younger than me,” he said. “It never bothered me to teach second generation students. What bothered me was when some of my students began retiring.”

Clausen enjoys the freedom and connectivity that the University of Arkansas offers as a research institution.

“My teaching experience at Tennessee Tech was vastly different from teaching at the University of Arkansas,” he said. “I taught at Tennessee Tech for four years, which has a huge emphasis on turning out undergraduates, but little focus on research.”

During the summer, Clausen participates in outreach projects that expose younger students to science, engineering and math through hands-on activities. In one of these programs, he works directly with middle school, junior high and high school students. “These programs are a lot of fun and are different from university classroom instruction,” he said.

“When the students are interested too, it’s neat.”

Off the Clock
“I watch a lot of sports,” he said. “Everything Razorbacks, of course; I cheer for anyone playing the University of Texas; in baseball, the Cardinals and in football, anyone playing the Dallas Cowboys.”