Chemical Engineering News from the Department Chair

Message from the Chair

The academic year of 2002-2003 has been another year of transition and challenges for Michigan Tech and the Department of Chemical Engineering, but our department is still growing and developing in many positive directions. Year in and year out, our faculty have dedicated themselves to providing the best possible education to our undergraduates, while at the same time performing research, working with graduate students, serving on innumerable committees, and performing professional service activities. I would like to highlight a few major changes and achievements among the faculty, some of which are discussed in more detail elsewhere in the newsletter:

Joining our faculty this year is Dr. Joseph Holles. Dr. Holles comes from a post-doctoral position at the California Institute of Technology, having received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2000. His areas of research include heterogeneous catalysis and material synthesis. The highlight of Joe’s first year following his family’s move to Houghton is the birth of his daughter, Sydney Kathleen, in February!

Our former department chair, Dr. Edward Fisher has recently retired from Michigan Tech. Dr. Edward Fisher came to MTU from Wayne State in 1985 and served for 13 years as Department chair, and 1 year as interim Dean of Engineering. After stepping down as chair in 1997, Ed has helped to coordinate and run our Unit Operations laboratory program. Although Ed officially retired in January, he has continued to teach this semester in graduate transport phenomena, to supervise undergraduate research, and to help in fundraising. He also continues to serve on the Michigan Tech Fund board. On a personal note, it was Ed who recruited me to the department in 1988, and helped me during my first faculty years.

Although, Dr. David Shonnard has been on sabbatical at the BASF Corp. in Germany this year, this spring he was announced as the winner of the American Society of Engineering Education’s (ASEE) prestigious Fahien Award. This award is given in honor of Ray Fahien, who was editor of Chemical Engineering Education from 1967-1995. The award, which is given annually to an educator who has shown evidence of vision and contribution to chemical engineering education, consists of a $1,000 stipend and a plaque to be presented at the Chemical Engineering Division Banquet of the ASEE Annual Conference this June in Nashville, TN.

Assistant Professor, Dr. Jason Keith has been instrumental in starting the second Enterprise program based in our department, the Alternative Fuels Enterprise, based upon a concept developed by former members of our AIChE ChemE Car team. Dr. Keith has also been named recipient of the highly competitive 3M Untenured Faculty Grant. His programs are gaining national recognition in the area of fuel cell research and applications. Jason and his wife, Sal, have also become new parents with the birth of a son, Andrew Noah, in April of this year!

Dr. Faith Morrison has taken over the departmental academic advising duties from Dr. Anton Pintar, who retired last year after serving as our academic advisor for many years. Dr. Morrison has implemented an impressive Web-based advising system that is being adopted by other departments across the campus. She also has a commitment to personal attention for each student seeking to navigate through our difficult curriculum in four, short years.

Dr. Gerard Caneba has recently won an NSF grant for Nano-science Education for Undergraduates. Dr. Caneba also continues to conduct research on polymer micro- and nano-structures with Argonne National Laboratories and with NASA.

With Dr. Fisher’s retirement, Dr. Julie King and Dave Caspary have taken the lead in our Unit Operations and Chemical Plant Operations Laboratory. They have continued to upgrade and improve all aspects of our already impressive undergraduate teaching facilities.

In addition to being one of our teaching stars, Dr. Nam Kim is leading our upcoming ABET accreditation and educational outcomes assessment efforts.

Dr. Bruce Barna has continued to strengthen our ties to the University of Sonora in Hermisillo, Mexico via a US AID grant for graduate student education.

Dr. Tony Rogers is this year’s winner of the OCE outstanding teacher award. Along with Dr. Julie King, he has helped lead our Consumer Product Manufacturing (CPM) Enterprise sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. The CPM Enterprise has recently won the outstanding MTU Enterprise award for the second straight year.

I would also like to once again thank our dedicated staff including: Departmental Coordinator, Chris Abramson and the office staff, Cindy Usitalo, and Alexis Snell for keeping the department on track; our lab team, Dave Caspary, Tim Gasperich, and Jerry Norkell for keeping the laboratories the best (and safest) in the nation; and Javier Fernandez and Chris Williams for keeping our computers up to date, and running smoothly.

This year has also been a remarkable year for the Michigan Tech chemical engineering students. In the fall, one of last year’s seniors, Jon Molloy, was announced as winner of the 2002 National AIChE Design competition. He was presented the award at the Annual AIChE convention in Indianapolis in November. This spring, our student chapter of AIChE hosted the regional student conference here in Houghton for the first time in 17 years. Our AIChE students did all of the fund raising, planning, and staffing for this huge endeavor. Appropriately, the slogan for the conference was " The Road Less Traveled". In spite of late spring blizzards, and hazardous travel conditions, over 80 students from 12 universities came from all over the Midwest to compete in various technical competitions, present papers, and have a good time.

I regret to announce that two very good friends of our department passed away during the past year. Last June, we rededicated the BASF classroom in recognition of Jack Wehman and his contributions to undergraduate education at MTU. Unfortunately, Jack passed away last October after a courageous battle with cancer. He was a long time supporter of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Tech, and a member of our National Advisory Board. Also, former Department Chair, E. T. Williams passed away in April of this year. Many of our alums have related to me their memories of taking the "stoichiometry course" from Ed Williams in the 60’s until the early 80’s. Dr. Williams continued to reside in Houghton until his death. He maintained the rank of Professor Emeritus in the department, and was a member of our Chemical Engineering Distinguished Academy.

Finally, over the last year it has been a great pleasure to meet many of MTU’s chemical engineering alumni. Our department has over 3000 alumni living in nearly every state and over 23 countries. My impression from the time I have spent with our alums, is how broadly successful our graduates have been in almost every field imaginable. We love hearing from our alumni, and have enclosed an alumni update card in this newsletter for your convenience. I encourage you to take a few minutes to fill it out and let us know how you are doing.

Dr. Michael E. Mullins
Department Chair

This page was last updated on 06/03/03 11:38:59 PM

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