NEW YORK CITY — The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will spotlight the roles that chemical engineers play in fulfilling the needs of society and industry during the organization’s 2023 Annual Meeting, to be held November 5–10 in Orlando, Florida.
At the conference, chemical engineering researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and business leaders will explore the field’s growth areas and how chemical engineers are leading the way to a sustainable future.
In addition to sessions devoted to chemical engineering fundamentals, the conference will examine new areas of research and application — including a new topical conference that addresses decarbonization efforts in the chemical industries. Other sessions explore chemical engineering’s influence on sustainable pathways toward hydrogen-based and synthetic fuels, and the use of new materials as energy solutions. Along another program track, sessions are being devoted to building a more equitable and inclusive engineering profession.
Additional topical conferences and sessions cover the challenges involved in managing waste plastics, innovations in process engineering, and applications of sensors. The Next-Generation Manufacturing conference incorporates topics such as 3D printing, cybersecurity, Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, and process intensification. These topics and others will be examined at more than 700 technical sessions.
An associated Annual Student Conference (November 3–6) will offer career development opportunities — including workshops, scholarly competitions, research poster sessions, and networking activities — for nearly 2,000 chemical engineering undergraduates. Highlights include a welcome keynote talk by Lori Ryerkerk, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Celanese Corporation; a graduate recruitment fair; and the 25th running of AIChE’s Chem-E-Car Competition. Also, at the K-12 STEM Showcase, chemical engineering undergraduates will exhibit chemical engineering principles to an audience of local pre-college students.
With its emphasis on technical innovation and the professional growth of chemical engineers, AIChE’s Annual Meeting is the foremost educational forum for chemical engineers working in research and development. Programmers expect 5,000 professional engineers, scientists, and business leaders to participate at the meeting to gain insight into the field’s growth areas and to connect with other professionals.
Featured events and highlights
- On Sunday, November 5, an Honors Ceremony will spotlight the recipients of AIChE’s Institute and Board of Directors’ awards for 2023. These high honors recognize eminent achievements across a spectrum of chemical engineering endeavors.
- Setting the stage for the week’s technical program — and emphasizing a key theme of the meeting — a panel discussion devoted to Sustainability and the Circular Economy is slated for Monday, November 6. Panelists from industry, academia, and government agencies will reflect on emerging opportunities for chemical engineers to create sustainable solutions for societal and global problems. Also on November 6, meeting attendees will engage in “A Conversation on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” Thought leaders will discuss the values underlying AIChE’s IDEAL path — characterized by inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism, and learning.
- The Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence Lecture (November 6) will be presented by 2023 fellowship recipient Albert J. Keung, Associate Professor and University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University. Keung will discuss his research on the data-storage potential of modified DNA.
- The programming of AIChE’s Regenerative Engineering Society will feature the inaugural Cato T. Laurencin Regenerative Engineering Founder’s Award Lecture — named for that society’s organizer. Antonios Mikos, the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice Univ., is slated to deliver the lecture on November 6.
- The Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering Lecture (Tuesday, November 7) will be delivered by AIChE’s 2022 Acrivos Award recipient, Rachel A. Segalman, the Edward Noble Kramer Professor of Materials and the Warren G. and Katherine S. Schlinger Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Segalman will discuss her research on superionic conductivity for use in lithium-ion batteries and other applications.
- On November 7, AIChE’s Society for Biological Engineering presents its Daniel I. C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering. An associated lecture will be given by the Wang Award recipient Huimin Zhao, the Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Zhao’s lecture will explore the new era in synthetic biology.
- The John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecture (Wednesday, November 8) will be presented by Mark R. Prausnitz, Regents’ Professor, Regents’ Entrepreneur, and the J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. AIChE’s 75th Institute Lecturer, Mark Prausnitz will discuss his research on biomedical microtechnologies that can selectively cross tissue barriers to improve drug delivery, among other medical applications.
- The James E. Bailey Award Lecture (November 8) is sponsored by the Society for Biological Engineering, and will be delivered by Gregory Stephanopoulos, the Willard Henry Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His lecture is entitled “Can Biotechnology Deliver Cost Effective Fuels with a Reduced Carbon Footprint?”
- The William R. Schowalter Lecture (November 8) is named for fluid mechanics pioneer William Schowalter of Princeton University. The lecture will be given by Kathleen J. Stebe, Goodwin Professor of Applied Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Stebe’s lecture is entitled “Active Surface Agents: Active Colloids at Fluid-Fluid Interfaces.”
For a complete schedule of events and information about conference registration, visit www.aiche.org/annual.