YPAB- A guiding hand as you build your resume
In chemical engineering, a healthy pipeline is critical to success. Similarly, young members are key to the vitality and future of the Institute.
Launched at the 2002 AIChE Leadership Development Conference, the Young Professionals Advisory Board (YPAB) is dedicated to gaining and maintaining the participation of young professional members. YPAB will foster relationships with young members, employers, and local sections to promote increased participation. They will also advise AIChE on how to reach this target group and offer products and services that meet their needs.
"YPAB is critical to the future of the Institute," said Bette Lawler, AIChE director of operations. "Young chemical engineers need a professional home. Our Institute, while doing a good job at bringing new young professionals on board, is challenged to keep this constituency involved."
According to recent membership statistics, members under 30 are the most difficult age group to retain. Fifty three percent of individuals who dropped their membership last year were under 29, of these, nearly half were under 25. YPAB is key to retaining more of these members.
"The role of YPAB is to help define what young professionals need from an organization like ours and make sure that such services and networking opportunities are available to them," said Lawler. "This group will also help us communicate in a way that speaks to young professionals."
YPAB will work to improve communications with young members through a Web site, list serve, and printed materials devoted exclusively to the needs of young professionals and available directly from AIChE and through employers of young engineers. These vehicles will connect young engineers and communicate the benefits of AIChE membership.
Through the years, AIChE membership has helped young professionals to build professional and social networks. YPAB is helping to promote these networks by working with local sections to develop programming to connect with young members. YPAB will plan social events at the Annual and Spring meetings for this age group. They are also working with employers of young engineers to encourage corporate support of AIChE membership on the managerial and corporate level.
Young Professionals Advisory Board Members
This list has not been updated recently. For more recent YPAB members, check out the YP of the Month column on ChEnected.
David Wishnick graduated from University of Wisconsin with a B.S in Chemical Engineering in 2002 and worked in the Chicago area in pharmaceutical validation until 2005. During that time he served as both AIChE Chicago House Chair and Chicago Young Professional Chair. He moved to Seattle in 2005 where he began a part-time MBA program at Seattle University while working in Business Development and Technical Sales and Marketing until 2009. Currently, he is a student pursuing his MBA. In Seattle he served as the Puget Sound Minority Scholarship Chair and is currently the Local Puget Sound Treasurer and the National YPAB Chair.
S. Tom King is currently working as a Development Engineer in the CAS Petrochemicals Operations Technical Support Group at UOP/Honeywell (Des Plaines IL). Tom started working at UOP in January 2007 and currently provides technical support for 30 customers in cumene and ethylbenzene alkylation technologies. Tom has a BS in Chemical Engineering, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001). Tom also has an MS in Bioengineering (2005) and an MS in Chemical Engineering (2007) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to attending graduate school, Tom worked as a Research Associate at Pierce Biotechnology, Inc. (Rockford IL). Tom also completed five internships at Pierce while attending UW-Madison. While attending graduate school at UIC, Tom worked as a Research Assistant for UIC Research Resources Center and Molecular Biology Consortium in the Chicago Technology Park. Tom is an active member of AIChE and serves as a local section officer in the Chicago Section and is Chair for the National Young Professionals Advisory Board of AIChE.
Brian Daly is a member of the Young Professionals Advisory Board.
Brian is a process engineer, residing in Houston, TX. He has been designing chemical processes for various types of chemical and power plants, recently spearheadeding Fluor's new-hire process engineer training program.
He began working for Fluor after graduating from the University of Houston in May 2002, where he earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a Minor in Chemistry. He also held intern positions in Fluor's Process Technology Department as well as Schlumberger's Research & Development Department.
In addition to engineering, it is rumored Brian made the rounds as an actor with a dinner theatre group called Mystery Cafe Houston and is known to dable in writing (bad) amateur fiction. Sadly, his dream of a movie starring a chemical engineer that saves the world has yet to be realized...
Yoojung Kim is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board.
Yoojung is a process engineer at Solutia, Inc. in Houston, TX. Yoojung started working at Solutia in 2006 and her major responsibilities include supporting Acrylonitrile plants and optimizing their operations to maximize product recovery. Prior to that, she was a process engineer at Lyondell where she supported ethanol plant operations and projects. She has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004). While she was attending UIUC, she co-oped three terms at Lyondell. She is currently the advertising coordinator of the local AIChE Young Professionals (South Texas Section) and the Communications Chair of AIChE South Texas Section.
Daniel Shiosaki is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board.
Daniel currently works for Lyondell Basell as a Process Engineer at their Channelview site. He works on optimization and troubleshooting for the various chemical processes at several company sites. His most recent work deals with hydrogen optimization at the Lyondell-Citgo Refinery. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys participating in the college recruiting process for Lyondell Basell. He moved to Houston, Texas, shortly after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2007). In college he participated in various activities with the local AIChE chapter, swim team, and his fraternity.
Jasmine Lee is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board.
Jasmine is a Consultant at M3 Technology, Inc in Houston, Texas. Prior to this she was an Applications Engineer for Siemens Energy and Automation. In her role at M3 Technology, Jasmine is responsible for modeling, training and rollout of planning and scheduling software. As an active member of AIChE, Jasmine is on the Board of Directors of her local section, serves her local YPAB chapter and also serves on the YPAB at the National Level. She encourages all chemical engineers to be involved with AIChE for the professional development, career advice and great friendships it can provide. Jasmine graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (2005) with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry. In addition to her professional career, she is an accomplished cellist. When she has time, she enjoys running, volunteering for The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research and The Humane Society, travel, and the outdoors.
Nicole Rasmussen is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board.
Nicole Rasmussen currently works as a Metallurgist in the metallurgical lab for Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc. in Northeastern Nevada. She works on projects to increase/improve processes in the recovery of gold from refractory ore. She also works on grinding efficiency of the comminution circuit. Nicole has been with Barrick since graduating with a BS from the University of Arizona (2007). Nicole has been involved with YPAB since attending short courses at the 2008 National Spring meeting as part of the New Horizons program. In her spare time she enjoys coaching indoor and outdoor youth soccer. She is also continuing her education at the local community college, but now it’s more for fun with classes like watercolor and Spanish.
Cory Jensen is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board.
Cory is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board, the Rocky Mountain Student Liaison, and a graduate student in the Division of Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. He is active in the Denver local section, is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado, a graduate from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (BS ChE) 2000 and Colorado State University (MS ChE/BiolE) 2006. Outside of volunteering, he enjoys being active in hobbies that include winter and summer sport activities in the Rocky Mountains (soccer, mountain biking and snowboarding). Cory has researched biosensors, applied mathematical modeling, analytical approaches to water remediation with an aquatic plant (Pistia stratiotes), holistic aspects of several renewable energy projects while holding various management, pilot and experimental design roles. His research interests lay in the areas of novel synergistic system design that often require iterative experiment and model validation (e.g. integrated energy processes), bio-devices (e.g. sensors and energy generating) and Sustainable topics (e.g. design, water, energy efficiency, metrics). Cory enjoys creative and cross-disciplinary approaches to science and engineering problems and is working to promote quality leadership development at all levels.
Jessica Swary is a member of the Chicago Section Young Professional Advisory Board.
Originally from Toledo, OH, Jessica moved to Chicago in 2007 to work as a Process Engineer at Middough in Oak Brook, IL. At Middough she has gained experience in process design in a wide variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, corn wet-milling, metals, power, food and oil refining.
Jessica graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toledo (2006). While attending UT, Jessica co-oped three times at Air Products & Chemicals and worked part-time at Pilkington. Jessica enjoys playing piano, doing yard work and volunteering in her free time. Her favorite volunteer activity is E-week or any other program where she gets the opportunity to get to talk to kids of all ages about engineering.
Billy Novak is a member of the Young Professionals Advisory Board.
Billy works as a Process Engineer for the The Shaw Group, residing in Baton Rouge, LA. His day-to-day responsibilities include process design with an emphasis on equipment rating and design as well as instrument and controls specification. His extracurricular Shaw activities include being the Global, as well as the Baton Rouge Office, Energy & Chemicals Young Engineer and Professional Society President. Billy graduated from Louisiana State University (2003) with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry. He is currently back at LSU pursuing a MBA. As an undergraduate, Billy was the LSU AIChE Chapter Student President. Around town, Billy is the Baton Rouge AIChE Chapter Young Members Committee Chair and a volunteer soccer coach.