Chemical engineering fellowship open for entries

Chemical engineers with an interest in politics are invited to apply for a fellowship post in memory of the late Ashok Kumar, the only serving chemical engineer in UK government at the time of his sudden death last year.

The Ashok Kumar Fellowship was launched last year and is jointly funded by IChemE and the North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).

The annual fellowship will see a successful candidate spend three months at the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) where they will produce a short briefing paper, contribute to a longer report or assist a select committee in a current inquiry. The topic of the work will be relevant to chemical/process engineering or the process industries.

An IChemE Fellow, Kumar had been the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland since 1997, his second spell in parliament following a brief stint in 1991. Prior to his career in politics, Kumar spent 14 years working as a research scientist for British Steel at the Teesside Technology Centre in Grangetown.

IChemE ceo David Brown said: “IChemE is delighted to be co-funding this important fellowship for a second year. Not only does it pay a fitting tribute to a great man, but it highlights the importance of increasing political understanding of the value of engineering in Parliament.”

Iwan Roberts, an IChemE member and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Engineering Doctoral student was the inaugural recipient of the fellowship. Roberts will spend three months at POST where he will work on a chemical engineering project or research paper. He holds a first class MEng degree in biochemical engineering from University College London and is currently in the third year of his engineering doctoral.

The fellowship is open to researchers with postgraduate qualifications as well as postgraduate students in engineering or other disciplines related to the chemical and process industries. PhD or EngD candidates should be at a stage where they have completed their first year but will still be registered at the time the fellowship starts. Applicants do not need to be UK based.

The successful applicant will (if they are still a student) receive a 3 month extension to their postgraduate funding or equivalent.  IChemE and NEPIC will reimburse the additional costs to the university to ensure that their stipend will continue to be paid while based at POST.

The fellowship is for 3 months and may be carried out from March 2012, although candidates should try to avoiding starting in June, July and August, which are the summer recess months.

The start date is to be agreed between the applicant, POST, the applicant's supervisor and University, IChemE and NEPIC. Visit www.icheme.org/akf for more information and to download your application form. The application deadline is 31 October 2011.