Seizing the Future of ChE [Blog Series] | AIChE

Seizing the Future of ChE [Blog Series]

December 20, 2012

This is Part 12 in the ChEnected series "We Are ChE: Entering a Golden Age". It is authored by Incoming 2013 AIChE president Phil Westmoreland. This series has been based on the five reasons that are shaping our entrance into a Golden Age of ChE:

  • Manufacturing’s shift to emphasize processes and properties
  • New abundance of hydrocarbon resources in the US
  • Biology’s turning into a molecular science
  • Computing, evolved into a cyberinfrastructure
  • ChEs’ breadth and problem-solving approaches

I conclude by identifying three ways we can seize the future and shape our profession:

  • Asserting leadership in the new face of manufacturing
  • Incorporating information management and analytics
  • Embracing our profession’s breadth

ChEs can take on a leadership role in manufacturing

Chemical engineers and AIChE can both promote our role in manufacturing and take a leading role in reshaping its modern form. The public, economists, and governments think of manufacturing as durable goods like cars or washing machines or aircraft built on assembly lines.

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Dr. Phillip R. Westmoreland

Phil Westmoreland is a professor at North CarolinaState University in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research focuses on reaction kinetics and engineering, obtained from experiments, computational chemistry and reactor modeling. His Chemical Engineering degrees are fromN.C. State (BS73), LSU (MS74) and MIT (PhD86). From 1986-2009, Phil was at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and in 2006-2009 he served as a Program Director at NSF.

He was 2013 AIChE President; is a Trustee and past president of the educational nonprofit CACHE Corporation; and was...Read more