This essay set outs some speculations about the changing role of Chemical Engineering in the 21st century. To this end, I first look back — well beyond my own undergraduate experiences of Chemical Engineering at Sydney University in the 1950’s
— to the earlier shape and traditions of the subject. I then sketch a personal vision
of how ever-accelerating advances in our understanding of the molecular machinery of life, and the consequent biotechnological applications, are likely to affect us,
bringing both new benefits and new problems. Chemical Engineering, defined more
broadly than most current practitioners can imagine and shading into biomedicine,
will be at the heart of delivering the benefits, and caught up in most of the problems.