Dr. Arthur William Etchells is a world recognized authority in the field of mixing for the process industries. He is a chemical engineer with BS and MS degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate from the University of Delaware. For thirty nine years he worked for the DuPont Company, primarily as an internal consultant for the many diverse DuPont businesses in the field of fluid flow with emphasis on mixing and slurry transport. He has achieved the highest technical level of DuPont Fellow and the highest technical award, the Lavoisier Medal.
Dr. Etchells' outside activities, which include teaching in universities and continuing education courses, publications, lectures, and active leadership in the world technical community, have made him widely known and highly respected. He has contributed two chapters to the recent Handbook of Industrial Mixing (Wiley 2003) and is now working as an editor for a new supplemental edition. He is a past president of the North American Mixing Forum, and winner of their award for contribution to mixing technology.
By his efforts, the technology of mixing has become better recognized and understood in the process industries and in universities. Dr. Etchells retired from DuPont in November 2002 and now works as an independent contract consultant. Much of his current work involves evaluating the design of facilities for immobilizing radioactive waste at the Hanford site in the state of Washington, and elsewhere. He also consults for a number of companies outside of DuPont, in fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals and foods. He recently was honored by the AIChE Interamerican Confederation of Chemical Engineering with the Jim Oldshue Lecture Award for contributions to chemical engineering.