Michel Boudart, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Stanford, died last Wednesday at the age of 87. Boudart taught at Princeton University and UC-Berkeley before spending 50 years in Stanford’s Chemical Engineering Department.

Boudart’s work influenced the energy, defense and space industries. A holder of four patents, he is best known for his work in catalysis, which involves studying substances that cause a change in the rate of a chemical reaction without reacting.

According to the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Boudart’s principal achievement was the “quantification of catalysis as rigorous sequences” of basic steps, which helped enable exact chemical reaction readings. Such advances made it possible for laboratories to compare data globally, affording opportunities for collaboration.

Born in Belgium, Boudart earned a B.S. and M.S. at the University of Louvain, and then obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry at Princeton University in 1950. Boudart became Stanford’s first William M. Keck, Sr. professor of chemical engineering and helped build the reputation of the Chemical Engineering Department.

He was knighted in Belgium, and was elected to both the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering. Along with two associates, Boudart founded Catalytica, a company that works on problems involving catalysis for petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical firms, in Santa Clara, Calif.

— Mary Ann Toman-Miller