Michael M. Abbott was an internationally recognized expert in thermodynamics

Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is honoring the legacy of celebrated chemical engineering professor Michael M. Abbott through a lecture series in his name. Abbott, who devoted more than 35 years to Rensselaer as a teacher, researcher, and student, died May 31, 2006.

The Michael M. Abbott Lecture Series will be hosted each spring by Rensselaer’s Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The department launched the lecture series May 10 with a talk by Jefferson Tester, the H.P. Meissner Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Abbott was an internationally recognized expert in chemical thermodynamics, and he was the co-author of four textbooks, including the best-selling chemical engineering text of all time, Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, currently in its seventh edition.

But this was hard-won expertise, according to Abbott. “My teaching career has been strongly influenced by my own undergraduate experiences,” Abbott wrote in a personal statement from the late 1990s. “Foremost among these was unusual difficulty with a single subject: thermodynamics. . .  A major personal mission for the past 25 years has been to make my old nemesis — thermodynamics — comprehensible to my students.”

Those who knew Abbott said he had a passion for teaching. He received many awards in recognition of his work as a teacher and mentor, including the Trustees’ Outstanding Teacher Award and the first Rensselaer Alumni Association Teaching Award in 1994. 

“Dr. Abbott was an outstanding teacher who was deeply dedicated to Rensselaer and its students,” said Alan Cramb, dean of the School of Engineering. “He will be remembered by the Rensselaer community as a man of warmth and selflessness, of kindness and good humor, and of wisdom, high standards, and great character.”

Abbott received his bachelor’s in 1961 and his doctorate in 1965, both from Rensselaer in chemical engineering. After several years working at Exxon Research and Engineering, he returned to Rensselaer in 1969 as a postdoctoral research associate and stayed until his retirement in 2002 as professor emeritus of chemical and biological engineering — although he continued to teach even after officially retiring.

Professor Abbott is survived by his wife of 43 years, Mary Abbott. She too was part of the Rensselaer community, having recently retired after devoting more than 20 years to the Institute, working in alumni relations and institute advancement.

Contact: Jason Gorss
Phone: (518) 276-6098
E-mail: gorssj@rpi.edu