F&PD 2013 Elections

Elections are underway for open positions within F&PD Executive Committee. If you are a member of F&PD, we encourage you to participate in the elections.

Please visit the election portal at http://www3.aiche.org/Elections/Home.aspx?electionID=7A8B172D-6122-432A-... to cast your ballot, the election ends on January 31, 2013 and the official announcement of the results will be made at our Excom meeting in San Antonio on April 28 as well as in our award dinner meeting during the 2013 Spring Meeting.

Following are the candidates running for respective positions, followed by their bio below:

Candidates for Director (3 years term) – vote for 3

• Mark Darby (Consultant)
• Saadet Ulas Acikgoz (UOP)
• Sasha Vragolic (Flint Hills Resources)
• Rick Kolodziej (Mustang)
• Frank Del Nogal (BHP Billiton)

Candidates for 2nd Vice Chair (4 years commitment with annual progression to 1st vice chair, chair and past chair) – vote for 1

• Kirtan K. Trivedi (ExxonMobil)
• Dennis O'Brien (Jacobs Consultancy)

Treasurer (2 years term)

• Steve Coleman (LyondellBasell)

CANDIDATE BIOS

Mark Darby – Director Candidate

Mark received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston.  His career has focused on automation and advanced control.  He has held a variety of technical and management positions at Setpoint and AspenTech and is now self employed.  Mark has been a member of AIChE since 1980 and is a frequent contributor to the Annual and Spring Meetings.  He has been active in F&PD the past five years; serving as a chair of the Advanced Control and Optimization Session and serving on the Programming Committee.  Mark believes it is important to expand our efforts to get young members involved and to reach out to prospective engineering students.  He serves on the advisory board for the Chemical Engineering Dept. at Texas Tech University and is a volunteer at Lone Star College.  He continues to collaborate on R&D at the University of Houston.  Mark would welcome the opportunity to serve the division in a greater capacity as an F&PD director.

Frank Del Nogal – Director Candidate

With a Chemical Engineering degree from the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, Frank Del Nogal has contributed to the fuels and petrochemicals industry for more than 15 years. His strengths include a solid background in gas/LNG, energy integration and process simulation, a PhD in LNG process design and a firm commitment to quality, HSE and professional integrity. He has authored and presented several papers at AIChE Spring Meetings and volunteered within the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division for several years in a Session Chair/Co-Chair capacity for Energy Optimization and LNG topics as well as serving currently as Technical Programming Chair for Topical 7 (refinery processing). Frank is a Chartered Engineer in the UK and a senior member of AIChE.

During his early career, Frank performed with Aspen Technology as Technical Solutions Consultant on process simulation for gas, refining and petrochemical applications while also acting as Adjunct Chemical Engineering Lecturer at La Universidad del Zulia in Venezuela. In 2001 he joined the Centre for Process Integration at UMIST in the UK (nowadays The University of Manchester), successfully completing an MSc on Process Integration, a PhD on LNG process design and winning the European Gas Processors Association’s Aungier Award in 2003. Frank then joined the process engineering team at M.W. Kellogg Ltd./KBR in 2005 and executed front end studies and projects on process integration, energy optimization and LNG out of their London and Houston offices while also enjoying being a mentor to younger professionals. Frank is currently a Senior Process Engineer at BHP Billiton Petroleum in Houston, TX, supporting the development of gas and LNG projects and assets.

Saadet Ulas Acikgoz – Director Candidate

Saadet has been working for UOP LLC for the past five years. In her current role as Gas Processing Specialist in Research and Development, she is working on developing new technologies to remove contaminants from natural gas and syngas from coal gasification. Additionally, she acts as a technical contact for UOP Marketing and Sales in the area of gas processing and provides commercial sales support. Prior to her current role, she worked as a Process Development Specialist in Research and Development, where she was accountable for designing, scaling up and optimizing new process technologies for commercialization. During her career at UOP, she co-authored several UOP patent applications.

Saadet first joined the AIChE as a student member and she has been involved in the programming of AIChE Spring National Conference since 2009, serving in roles as Session Chair and Co-Chair. She has co-authored and presented several papers in the AIChE Spring National Conferences and the Annual Fall Meetings since 2004. She is an active member of the Fuels & Petrochemicals Division (F&PD). She will be chairing the “Gas Separation Technologies” session at the 2013 Spring National Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Saadet received her MS and PhD Degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering. She holds a BS Degree in Chemical Engineering from the top ranking university in Turkey, the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Her graduate research was focused on process systems engineering where she developed novel sampling techniques and addressed the application of stochastic methods to optimal control problems under uncertainty. Her research has resulted in multiple journal publications.

Chemical engineers have been at the forefront of new technology development to advance the quality of life for all humankind. The exchange of information and ideas between practicing chemical engineers through technical meetings and webinars fosters innovation and improves participation in the AIChE and F&PD. As a Director, I would contribute in technical session and webinar programming to provide training and information to F&PD members. In order to tackle the future challenges and problems of the world, we need to also support and mentor the next generation of scientists and engineers. As a Director for the F&PD, I would like to be actively involved in activities that encourage high school students to choose science and engineering careers.

Sasha Vragolic – Director Candidate

Sasha Vragolic has been a member of the AIChE since 1987. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in ChE from Lamar University. He has worked in the Petrochemical industry for the last 24 years in various positions involving Process Engineering, Process Control Engineering, Engineering Supervision, and Operations Management. He serves on the Ethylene Producer’s Committee (EPC) and the EPC’s Process Control Subcommittee as the representative for his current employer, Flint Hills Resources, LLC.

Rick Kolodziej – Director Candidate

Rick is currently the Process Technology Manager for Wood Group Mustang, helping seek out and then execute Process Studies and Process Engineering support work scopes, especially those involving the use of process technologies.

One of Rick’s key areas of success and continued focus is the use of established technologies into newer markets, while also providing engineering support for the development and commercialization of newer technologies. These mainly include process technologies, but have also included process plant equipment and instrumentation opportunities.  Rick sees this as one ongoing and growth area for chemical engineers in our industry, which would also help focus and coordinate efforts for ChemEs of all education levels and experience levels!  One such success is: “bio-isobutanol”.  Research experts, refinery engineers, and various engineering consultants, all contributed to this development effort, and the result enhances several industries.  Rick authored an article in the September, 2012 issue of Hydrocarbon Processing, summarizing the use benefits and cost effective production of bio-isobutanol. 

Rick’s contributions and unique use of: MTBE conversion technology, oxidative desulfurization, and better sulfur recovery options are all on-going as well.  Again, coordination of academia and industry was key to efficient development and success.

Rick has also volunteered at high school science fairs and career days, promoting the many and varied benefits of chemical engineering.   Rick has also tutored chemistry, physics, and calculus at the college level.

Rick has thirty plus years experience in process/project engineering and development roles serving the: refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, polymers and gas processing industries. 

Rick has presented a number of papers at AIChE and other national meetings, as well as, authored articles for Hydrocarbon Processing and Chemical Engineering Progress.

Rick has been active member of AIChE since 1981, and even before that as an active student chapter member and officer at University of Illinois – Chicago Circle (UICC), also winning the McCormack Award from the AIChE Chicago Section, as the best chemical engineer of the UICC graduating class of 1981.  Rick has been the co-chair of the “Aromatics and Petrochemicals” technical sessions at the Spring AIChE Meeting for more than several years now.

Rick has a BS Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois. Rick also has a US and International patent in hydrotreament.

Kirtan Trivedi – 2nd Vice Chair Candidate

I received a BE in chemical engineering from the M S University of Baroda, India, in 1982, M.Tech. in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, in 1984, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Adelaide, Australia, in 1988.  After finishing my Ph.D., I worked as Post Doctoral research fellow at ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.  In 1989, started working at Brown & Root Braun and was involved in the design of Refinery and Ethylene plants.  At Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group, I was involved in the design of upstream gas processing facilities.  I am currently Global Energy Technical Advisor at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.  I have extensive experience in developing large projects.  Throughout my Ph.D., Post Doctoral and industrial career, I have been involved in the area of project management, energy and reliability and have made significant contributions in these fields by publishing papers and organizing sessions on these topics at AIChE meetings and being involved in the Fuels and Petrochemicals Area. I am also on the research advisory board for the Process Integration Research Consortium at University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

I have served F&PD for more than 10 years by organizing the Refining Topical and chairing sessions related to Energy, Reliability, Process Integration, Revamps, Hydroprocessing etc.  I have also served as Director for F&PD (2006 – 2009).  Recently, I led the committee for revamping the Harry West Student Award and have volunteered in evaluating submission for student awards and the Best Paper Awards.

STATEMENT:

As the Second Vice Chair of the FP&D, some of the issues I would like to target are membership from younger engineers and more interactions between the industry and academia in solving the real life problems that the industry is facing.  I would like to enhance the visibility of the division by publicizing the benefits of membership.  I would also like to continue my involvement in the Programming area, and work on improving participation and attendance at AIChE meetings.  I see AIChE meetings as a good venue for interaction between industry and academia.  Through my participation in the technical programming area I hope to make a significant contribution for improving industry/academia interaction.

Dennis O'Brien – 2nd Vice Chair Candidate

AIChE activities:

• FPD: Director, Secretary, Treasurer, volunteer
• SIOC (Societal Impact Operating Council) member (k-12, MAC, International), Vice Chair, Chair
• Chicago Section: Director, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice Chair, Chair and volunteer
• Member of the Midwest Regional Meeting planning team MPC Spring 2011 meeting Chicago,
• EWB : Member, Treasurer

Professional Activities:

• Group Manager, Jacobs Consultancy- Petroleum and Petrochemical Practice, Chicago, 7 years
• Technical Specialist- Detergents and Light Olefins, UOP, 34 years.  18 patents, PE Illinois

Education:

• BSChE  ’71 Tulsa, MBA ’79 Roosevelt Chicago.

Objectives as 2nd Vice Chair, if elected:

1. I am interesting in making the FPD membership a better value proposition by providing access to a limited number of FPD papers
2. Coordinate FPD activities with CEOC (Career and Education Operating Council) on continuous learning and  SIOC on K-12 outreach
3. Increase the number of FPD members who are Fellows
4. Identify members who might be eligible for some of the many awards available to chemical engineers and work on their nominations.

While director I encouraged spring meeting presenters to present at the Midwest Symposium.  There are a two sessions at almost every Midwest Meeting for FPD related papers. So the presenters have a second opportunity to present to an interested audience.

Now how do we generate value for members who cannot attend a national or regional meeting?  I am still working on the idea of providing a limited number of papers for members to download from the annual and spring meeting proceedings.  With the move of the web hosting to AIChE National, this becomes practical.

Many of the FPD members are active in High School outreach to encourage youngsters to go into engineering.  There are some great resources being developed that may be useful to these individuals.  The effort here is to keep FPD membership informed and able to tap into these resources.

Fellow nomination support is an area where FPD has been pretty active.  I would work with one or two directors and other active FPD volunteers to do this more aggressively.

External awards have not been very visible to many of the AIChE members.  There is a team to support this within AIChE and perhaps FPD could have a representative on this team.  It would allow our members to have greater recognition inside and outside AIChE.

Steve Coleman – Treasurer Candidate

A graduate of  Bucknell University with a BS in Chemical Engineering, I have been involved in the manufacture of fuels and petrochemicals for the past 38 years, most of which have been with LyondellBasell and its predecessor companies.  In my current position as senior technical advisor, I provide technical support for the company’s olefins production facilities.

A member of AIChE since 1971, I have served the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division as a director, secretary, and most recently as treasurer.  I also represented Lyondell on the AIChE-affiliated Ethylene Producers’ Committee (1994-2008), serving as a subcommittee chair, session organizer, presenter and conference chair of the Ethylene Producers’ Conference, which is held each year in conjunction with the AIChE Spring Meeting.

STATEMENT

My involvement with the Fuels & Petrochemicals Division has increased my awareness of the many opportunities that the F&PD has to promote our industry to the chemical engineering population:  national meetings, local area meetings, newsletters, awards programs and regional symposia.  With your support, I will continue to serve the F&PD in further increasing the effectiveness of these programs to current and future members.  As treasurer, I commit to continue the clear and transparent reporting of the division’s income and expenses to the division’s executive committee, and to the development and tracking of the division’s annual budget.  And as a member of the executive committee, I will work to enhance the value of the division to its membership.