Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. RL0919 (talk) 05:38, 24 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering

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One source and i don't see why something such as this needs a wikipedia article, the article fails to provide any information on this subject or convey its importance or relevance. Theprussian (talk) 14:07, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I have also just noted that the only source this article is based on is inaccessible due to a paid subscription being neccesary. This is not good enough to confirm the existence of this entity.Theprussian (talk) 14:12, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That is utterly irrelevant. You not being able to look at it certainly does not equate to it not being a valid source. -- Necrothesp (talk) 10:59, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have as yet no opinion on keeping or deleting this article, but must point out that there is no requirement for sources to be available online or without charge. Phil Bridger (talk) 09:02, 10 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep or redirect to List of professorships at the University of Cambridge - I don't have experience in determining notability of these topics. I'll note that there are many other articles of this ilk linked from List of professorships at the University of Cambridge (yes, I know about WP:OTHERSTUFF). At the very least this should be redirected (to List of professorships at the University of Cambridge), not deleted per WP:ATD. ~Kvng (talk) 15:30, 12 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 04:40, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 03:25, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Science-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 03:25, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Engineering-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 03:25, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Education-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 03:25, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Redirect to List of professorships at the University of Cambridge. There are thousands of colleges, many with hundreds of named professorships. Virtually none have coverage outside internal university fundraising documents and lists of faculty and this does not appear to be an exception. The source here isn't even about the professorship, it's a biography of the first holder, wtf...

Here's the quote from the bio: "Fox's great opportunity came in 1945 when Cambridge University accepted the offer from Shell of about £450,000 for a chemical engineering department. His appointment in 1946 as Shell professor caused a stir in the small world of chemical engineers, as it was then. The appointment was in many ways remarkable: Fox had published no research papers, nor did he ever; he was not at that time an established member of the chemical engineering profession." Reywas92^Talk 04:52, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. This seems to be somewhat famous as a standard example of cozy ties between academe and industry. See, e.g. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]. Those are all passing mentions rather than non-trivial coverage, but from many times and places. There is more in-depth coverage in [10] and [11]. I think that's enough to hint that this particular chair stands out from the thousands of others enough for an article. (Incidentally, "Shell Chair" seems to work significantly better as a search term than "Shell Professor" or "Shell Professorship".) —David Eppstein (talk) 06:20, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
David Eppstein, seems like a better place for this is Department_of_Chemical_Engineering_and_Biotechnology,_University_of_Cambridge#History then, which already lists the chairs anyway. These are more about the department or the concept of corporate sponsorship than the position itself, and I don't think a lecture presented by a Shell professor himself counts as independent coverage. Reywas92^Talk 20:58, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
When considering whether a source is independent, you have to consider what it is being used to source. I think a lecture presented by someone who held the title some forty years later, when used as a source for the initial founding of the title, is sufficiently independent of those founding events. Also, it is false that the department web page lists the holders of this chair. It lists the department chairs, which haven't been the same thing as the Shell chairs for over 20 years. —David Eppstein (talk) 21:01, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Incidentally, I significantly expanded the article based on these sources. The version as nominated and as viewed by the previous commenters was significantly sparser and only had an in-passing source, now removed. —David Eppstein (talk) 06:23, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep per David Eppstein. XOR'easter (talk) 17:38, 19 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Redirect to List of professorships at the University of Cambridge. As said above there are countless endowed Chairs many of which have been held by a string of noteworthy academics. In this instance, the Chair doesn't appear to have yielded any Nobels thus far, though i'm not doubting the calibre of its holders, I just feel this opens the door to many somewhat superfluous similar articles. Uhooep (talk) 04:04, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- Named chairs have to have Nobel prize winners to become notable? Are they giving Nobel prizes in engineering nowadays? Can you point to where in Wikipedia's notability policies or guidelines this opinion is based? —David Eppstein (talk) 04:42, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  - Keep given the history of the Chair. Uhooep (talk) 06:54, 21 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Schools-related deletion discussions. Necrothesp (talk) 10:54, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. Established chairs at Oxbridge are generally regarded as notable. And 1945 is an early foundation date for a chair of chemical engineering. -- Necrothesp (talk) 10:58, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep: sufficient sourcing for a stand-alone article. --K.e.coffman (talk) 22:07, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.