From lab to shop
For two centuries, engineers educated at DTU have contributed to industry and society through their knowledge and skills. Some joined companies and participated in the development of products and manufacturing processes. These everyday engineers rarely left many traces in the history books, but in DTU’s historical collection we have some items drawn from the working life of chemical engineer Søren Berg. Berg graduated as a chemical engineer in 1922 and was employed as an assistant and later laboratory head at the Royal Porcelain Factory. In 1935 he switched to Porcelænsfabrikken Danmark, where he became known as “the man who knew what could be produced”.
Berg's many hats
As operations manager, Berg was in charge of the factory’s laboratory, where he and his colleagues developed new products. The company’s innovative groups created, amongst other things, a thermal coffee set and knurled vases. Berg was an expert in glazing, and possessed the expertise to create an even layer of glaze across the grooved surfaces.
Berg also changed the manufacturing processes in the company, for example by developing carborundum capsules to support the porcelain items during firing, as well as by refining the factory’s machinery. The recruitment of other engineers was also Berg’s responsibility, and he also participated in the development of new knowledge. He published several articles on porcelain, and was a research assistant in DTU’s laboratory for mortar, glass and ceramics. Via the think-tank Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV), he helped to develop the relationship between the knowledge institutions and industry.
The engineer and the national economy
Engineers like Berg have been of great importance to Danish society and the Danish business community, helping to create many of the products and systems with which we surround ourselves. Through their work in the R&D departments of companies, they have also made a decisive contribution to growth and prosperity in Denmark. In general, graduates of the higher education institutions became of great importance to the bottom line in Danish industry.
Who pays the price of prosperity?
Søren Berg lived his working life in a society that believed in almost endless growth and regarded consumption as something positive, in a society with an ever-growing appetite for materials and energy. During the 1960s protest movements arose which began to criticise this relationship, and engineering students at DTU called for changes in the teaching. How could engineers contribute to the constructive development of society? The battle, first of all for the environment, and later for the climate, was underway and engineering students wanted to be part of the solution. But an important question was – and remains – how do these good intentions translate into working life after university?
