Historic and Modern Era Engineers
To mark AIChE’s milestone anniversary this year, the Awards and Recognition Subcommittee of the Centennial Celebration Committee has developed lists of individuals who contributed to the profession and society in a variety of times and ways. These lists highlight advances in the profession during the years before World War II (“Foundation Age”) and after (“Modern Era”), as well as the authors of ground-breaking textbooks, industrial executives, astronauts, and chemical engineers who achieved fame in other pursuits. Additionally, the subcommittee has identified the profession’s forerunners.
These lists are being rolled out in CEP throughout 2008 and will subsequently be posted here. In the January issue of CEP, we began with “50 Forerunners of Importance.” For those of you who took the quiz by matching the names with the descriptions- let’s test your knowledge of our profession’s “ancestry” and see how well you did!
In response to the publication of the list of Forerunners of the profession in the January issue of CEP, a reader pointed out the accomplishments of Ellen Swallow Richards, and suggested that Richards should have been on the list. We would like to recognize Richards here http://www.inventions.org/culture/science/women/richards.html.
October 2008: We are recognizing the 100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era.
September 2008: We are recognizing 50 Chemical Engineers of the "Foundation Age"
August 2008: We recognized 30 Authors and Their Groundbreaking Chemical Engineering Books!
July 2008: We recognized a selection of corporate executives with backgrounds in chemical engineering-25 Industrial Executives
May 2008: We recognized those people who started out on the chemical engineering track, but left their own indelible marks in other fields-
Twenty Chemical Engineers in Other Pursuits
March 2008: We celebrated the fascinating achievements of chemical engineers in Space!
These lists were created in a spirit of celebration, not as rankings of technical accomplishment to be cast in stone. Please keep in mind that no single list can be exhaustive or definitive. The names on these lists were suggested by many, many AIChE members. A special review panel, composed of diverse and distinguished colleagues, used multiple secret ballots to select engineers, narrowing down from nearly 1,000 names considered.
Barry Tarmy, a retired executive with ExxonMobil with an avid interest in the history of chemical engineering, chairs the subcommittee.