ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief insight into the roots of chemical reaction engineering and its development as a vital part of chemical engineering. From a historical viewpoint, chemical reaction engineering is one of the youngest branches of chemical engineering. The development of chemical engineering started with the industrial revolution during the second half of the nineteenth century. The pioneering age of chemical engineering was characterized by the innovations of self-made men, who made marvelous contributions to the empirical development of chemical processes on a large scale. Organized education in chemical technology started in the golden city of Prague, at the prestigious Charles University. The United States was the pioneering country of chemical engineering. A curriculum in chemical engineering was started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1880. The old Europe followed the trend, starting from Denmark, Great Britain, and Imperial Russia.
