Joseph Alford is currently an independent automation consultant, having retired from a 35-year career at Eli Lilly and Co. in 2006, where he helped lead the automation of their life science development and manufacturing facilities. While doing so, he helped advance the state-of-the-art in monitoring and controlling life science processes, for which he received several corporate, university, and national AIChE and ISA awards. He has authored or co-authored more than 45 publications, including co-authoring the popular process control textbook Chemical and Bio-Process Control (5th Ed.) and the national standard on Management of Alarms for the Process Industries (i.e., ANSI/ISA 18.2). Alford holds a BS in chemical engineering from Purdue Univ., and MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Cincinnati. He is a Fellow of AIChE and ISA, an elected College of Engineering distinguished alumnus of both of his alma maters, and a member of the Process Automation Hall of Fame.