North America celebrates leading chemical engineers
6th November 2013
Leading chemical and process engineers from BakerRisk, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois were celebrated this week at the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ ‘IChemE Awards’ ceremony in San Francisco, California.
A team from Northwestern University were awarded the Chemical Engineering Project of the Year Award for their work on the development of a low-cost, environmentally friendly process for separating gold from other metal ions.
Quentin Baker from BakerRisk was presented with the Safety Award, sponsored by Chevron, in recognition of their contribution to process safety over three decades.
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s assistant professor, Andrew Ferguson, received the Young Chemical Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his impressive work on thermodynamic modelling for the development of HIV vaccines.
Andy Furlong, IChemE director of policy and communication said: “IChemE believes that chemical engineering matters and we are committed to advancing the discipline world-wide.
“An important way of promoting chemical engineering is to recognise and reward excellence and achievement through the presentation of medals and awards. The IChemE Awards programme has been running for 20 years, and this year attracted a record number of entries from all over the world.
“North America is responsible for producing some of the world’s best chemical engineers and all of this year’s winners fully deserve their accolades”.
The ceremony in San Francisco is just one of a series of events organised by IChemE to celebrate excellence, innovation and achievement in the chemical and process industries across the world. Other annual IChemE Awards events include ceremonies in Malaysia, Singapore and the UK.
Guests attending the event in San Francisco, held on 4 November 2013, included Chevron Oronite president and IChemE past president, Des King; Chevron general manager for health, environment and safety, Dr. Lucinda Jackson; AIChE past presidents, Dale Keairns and Hank Kohlbrand; and former US astronaut, Al Sacco.