Chemical Engineering November 2010 - 5

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EditOrs
rEbEkkAH J. MArsHAll
Editor in Chief
rmarshall@che.com
dOrOtHy lOzOWski
Managing Editor
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A passion for breakthroughs
L
ast month, I had the rare honor of sitting down with about 40 students
from Booker T. Washington High School's engineering magnet school
(Houston), who are all on the path toward careers in science and engineering.
While the experience itself was inspirational, it also caused me to
reflect - again - on what defines inspiring chemical engineering practice.
My encounter was at a student outreach event that was hosted by Honeywell
Process Solutions (HPS; Phoenix, Ariz.; www.honeywell.com/ps) and
held in conjunction with ChemInnovations Conference and Expo. Following
his keynote address, a variety of hands-on activities and tours of the exhibit
hall highlighting process equipment, instrumentation and other related
service providers, Norm Gilsdorf, the president of HPS, gave the students
an inspiring view of the exciting challenges and places where his chemical
engineering career has taken him. As an engineer for UOP, LLC, Gilsdorf
has literally seen the world and experienced extraordinary things.
By the end of the day, it was clear to me that prior to this event, none of
these students could have answered in any practical sense " What does a
chemical engineer do? " To be honest, I had been in the same boat, myself,
until at least the end of my first year of college. My reasons for selecting a
ChE education in the first place were, quite simply, based on my prowess
in two subjects: chemistry and math. In fact, a recollection that is laughable
to me now is that I naively entered my university's ChE program
- after one year in the architectural engineering program - in search of
less ambiguity and more-definitive " right answers " .
I've since realized that a chemical engineer who pursues only right
answers will quickly become unsatisfied and attain mediocre accomplishments
at best. Truly stellar careers in our profession are studded
by breakthroughs, as illustrated in the announcement of this magazine's
2010 Personal Achievement Awards (see pp. 17-22).
While each and every breakthrough is unique by definition and can
come in a variety of forms, one common denominator can be found in
them all: a willingness to take risks and do things differently than they
have been done before. That requires a creative mind, a characteristic
that is not included in the average engineering stereotype.
And despite the instantaneous revelation that the word breakthrough implies,
its achievement does not come to fruition overnight. It usually takes
somewhere between seven and ten years to innovate, a period Andre Argenton,
Global R&D strategy leader for the Dow Chemical Co. and a fellow
keynote speaker, referred to as the valley of death. As ominous as it sounds,
emerging from this pit does not mark the end of the challenge.
In the chemical process industries, breakthroughs of two kinds are required:
the first is inventing the novel process or technology to be used,
while the second is convincing the right people to adopt it. I know that
many of you have found that the second of these breakthroughs is the
hardest to achieve. This is true even if you're only trying to implement a
promising, new third-party technology that has been proven elsewhere.
The reality is that the greater the potential gain, the greater the change
that is required, and therefore, the greater the resistance
that must be overcome.
So, while there is no general formula for achieving
a breakthrough, I think that ChemInnovations' final
keynote speaker, John Hillman, an engineer and inventor
who has an inspiring first-hand story of his
own, said it best: Above all else, it takes passion. And
that is something that stellar chemical engineers have
in abundance.
■
Rebekkah Marshall
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com november 2010 5
http://www.honeywell.com/ps http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering November 2010
