Edward P. Bartkus

A West Virginia native of Thomas, Edward Bartkus obtained the degree of BSChE. Electives in the summer of 1941, before duty as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army. While in Africa and Italy, he was head of U.S. Air Force bomb procurement and logistics.

Upon return to WVU, he served a year as student body president, and received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering. He taught chemical and materials engineering as an instructor and as assistant professor. He also functioned as marshall of the University for two years.

In 1951, Bartkus joined the engineering department of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Inc., with professional and managerial assignments in process and equipment development and design, economics evaluations, computer applications, operations research, systems engineering, engineering product development and engineering consulting.

As director of systems engineering, he was in responsible charge during early development of (1) the critical path method for project planning and control given to and modified to the PERT Method by the U.S. Navy and (2) the computer processible chemical registry system given to and modified by Chemical Abstracts Service to become the world wide accepted identification system for chemicals, especially essential to research and to environmental control management.

While manager of New Engineering Products, products such as in-Company diamond knives and laboratory and process control instruments evolved into viable business ventures.

Bartkus completed his DuPont career with the Information Systems Department, directing application of information technologies to business, technical project and chemical hazards management.

His commitment to assuring validated material properties data and their ready access involved committee work with the National Research Council, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Chemical Manufacturers Association, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Energy, National Bureau of Standards, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, A.D. Little, Inc. and the American Society for Testing and Materials. Bartkus is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a registered Professional Engineer.