COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 27, 2008 – Authorities on safety from throughout the world will convene at College Station next week as part of a two-day symposium aimed at making the process industry a safer place and sponsored by Texas A&M University’s Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center.

The symposium “Beyond Regulatory Compliance, Making Safety Second Nature” is scheduled for Oct. 28-29 at the Hilton Conference Center and will feature wide variety of safety-related lectures and presentations, including incident surveillance and safety performance, equipment integrity, facility design, risk analysis, management for process safety and engineering ethics. In addition, the symposium will feature exhibits from companies looking to demonstrate products, technology and software related to process safety.

“This symposium serves as the crossroads for process safety where industry, academia, government agencies and other stakeholders come together to discuss critical issues of research in process safety,” said M. Sam Mannan, director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center. “I firmly believe that we are making major strides towards our goal of making safety second nature.”

John S. Bresland, chairman/ chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, headlines a distinguished list of presenters speaking throughout the two-day span. Bresland is scheduled to deliver the symposium’s keynote address, “Learning from Chemical Safety Board Investigations,” at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Bresland was appointed by President George W. Bush as chairman and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in 2008. He previously served as a CSB board member from August 2002 until August 2007. Before joining the board he was a staff consultant to the Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, working as a project manager on two committees and writing books on dust explosions and the management of reactive chemical hazards.

Prior to Bresland’s presentation, retired Navy Capt. James J. Colgary who now serves on the Nuclear Energy Institute, is scheduled to present the Frank P. Lees Memorial Lecture “Lessons for Leaders: Learning from Tragedy” at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Colgary’s presentation will detail a process safety accident that occurred at a refinery at Texas City, Texas on March 5, 2005, which resulted in 15 fatalities and more than 170 injuries. He will address findings from a safety panel formed to investigate the accident, which he says reveal broad lessons that are applicable across all process industries. Most important among those findings, he says, is the conclusion that ensuring process safety includes everyone in the organization – every worker, every contractor, every supervisor, every manager and every leader.

In conjunction with the symposium, the World Conference on Safety of Oil and Gas Industry (WCOGI) will hold its annual conference on the same days, also at the Hilton Conference Center. This symposium aims to enhance communication among researchers and practitioners from throughout the world who work in the areas of oil and gas safety engineering. Topics to be discussed include emergency response planning, fire and explosion hazards and safety topics on alternative energy processes.

Established in 1995, the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center is dedicated to enhancing safety in the chemical process industry. The center conducts various educational endeavors aimed at “making safety second nature” to everyone in the industry. In addition, center researchers work to develop safer processes, equipment, procedures and management strategies to minimize losses.

For more information about the two symposiums, including a full schedule, visit http://psc.tamu.edu/ and click on “2008 Symposium,” or contact Donna Startz at (979) 845-5981 or via email: donnas@tamu.edu

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - QATAR

Chemical Engineering Program

Applications are invited for two chemical engineering faculty positions at all levels at Texas A&M University’s branch campus in Doha, State of Qatar. Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) is a partnership with Qatar Foundation. Now entering its fifth year of operation, TAMUQ offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical, Electrical and Computer, Mechanical, and Petroleum Engineering. The degree programs are identical to those of the main campus at College Station, Texas. A Texas A&M University diploma is awarded to graduates. A new, state-of-the-art engineering building for teaching and research opened in 2007.

Applicants for these positions must have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering or closely related field. Preferences will be given to individuals with research and teaching interests in the areas of process integration and design, process safety, petroleum and gas processing, environmental engineering and thermodynamics, but outstanding candidates with research interests in other areas of Chemical engineering will also be considered. Prior teaching experience in USA and familiarity with ABET accreditation is desirable. We offer competitive salaries and summer funding is guaranteed. Liberal allowances for professional travel and for relocation to Qatar are provided. Fringe benefits include free furnished housing in one of several gated communities, K-12 education for dependents, group health insurance, annual leave allowance, and a car allowance.

Applicants should send curriculum vitae, detailed statement of research and teaching interests, and arrange to have letters of recommendation sent to: Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi, Chair-TAMUQ CHEN Search Committee, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3122. Call (979) 862-3985 for additional information. The complete dossier should be received by March 31, 2009. Early applications are encouraged since applications will be reviewed as they are received.

Texas A&M University is an equal opportunity employer. The University is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. More information about Texas A&M University is available on the web at http://www.tamu.edu and http://www.qatar.tamu.edu/. The University is responsive to the needs of dual career couples.

Texas A&M University provides equal opportunity to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age or veteran status and encourages applications from members of groups under-represented in engineering.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 24, 2008 – Zuyi “Jacky” Huang, a graduate student in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named a recipient of a Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) Graduate Travel Grant for 2008.

Huang, who joined Texas A&M in 2005 after receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tsinghua University in China, will receive a $500 stipend and a trip to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) annual meeting where he will be recognized and present his research.

Huang’s work involves the development of techniques for deriving signal transduction models that take into account that only a limited number of experimental data can be generated for these systems. Additionally, he is helping to develop new measurement techniques based upon the solution of inverse problems that will allow researchers to infer protein concentrations inside cells using non-invasive measurement techniques.

“I am pleased to have a student like Jacky working on these projects as it involves not only technical skills but also being able to constantly interact with researchers from another group,” said Assistant Professor Juergen Hahn in a letter nominating Huang for the award.

“He joined my research group in the spring of 2006 and has been a very hard working and extremely productive graduate student,” Hahn added.

Huang is an author of two papers accepted by the AIChE for oral presentation at its annual meeting: “Analysis Procedure for Signal Transduction Pathways by Clustering Parameters According to their Sensitivity Profiles” and “Quantitative Measurement Technique for Transcription Factor Profiles.”

CAST awards up to 10 travel grants each year to assist graduate students with travel expenses so that they can attend the AIChE Annual meeting to present the results of their research. To be eligible, the student must be a member of AIChE and present a paper at the Annual Meeting in a CAST-sponsored or co-sponsored session.

The CAST division of AIChE is responsible for the wide range of activities within the organization that involve the application of computers and mathematics to chemical engineering problems, including process design, process control, operations and applied mathematics.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 20, 2008 – Yushan Yan, professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, will discuss his research into zeolite materials Wednesday, Oct. 22, as part of the Fall 2008 J. D. Lindsay Lecture Series at Texas A&M University.

Yan is scheduled to present “Zeolite Thin Films: From Computer Chips to Space Station” from 3-4 p.m. in Rm. 106 of the Jack E. Brown Building. His presentation is sponsored by Texas A&M’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

Yan studies zeolites, a class of inorganic crystalline materials with uniform and molecular-sized pores that are commercially used as shape-selective catalysts and molecular-sieving gas separation/purification media.

His presentation will highlight his research efforts on the design and synthesis of zeolite thin films and coatings for a number of technologically and economically significant applications, including low dielectric constant (low-k) films for future generation computer chips, corrosion and wear resistant coatings for aerospace alloys, and hydrophilic and antimicrobial coatings for water separation in space station.

Yan received his undergraduate degree in chemical physics from the University of Science and Technology in China. He earned his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.

He joined the University of California, Riverside in 1998 and was promoted to professor in 2005. The following year he was selected as one of the five inaugural University Scholars and was appointed department chair in 2008.

Yan’s work has been widely cited in the scientific community and also extensively covered by the popular press, including New Scientist, Business Week, C&EN News, Materials Today, China Press and CNBC.

In honor of Professor J.D. Lindsay, Texas A&M’s first chemical engineering department head, the department established the Lindsay Lecture Series to bring speakers to the university. Coming from both industry and academia, the lecturers are recognized for their accomplishments in the practice, teaching and/or research of chemical engineering. The series also allows the lecturers several days for visiting the university and the department and for exchanging ideas on teaching and research objectives and methods.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 13, 2008 – The full funding of three endowed scholarships and a laboratory fund for the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center highlight a strong level of support this past year for the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, said Department Head and Charles D. Holland ’53 Professor Michael V. Pishko at the department’s Endowed Donor Banquet, which was held this month.

The annual banquet provides an opportunity for a select group of chemical engineering students and the donors of their scholarships to meet and be recognized.

This year, Nancy M. and Brock D. Nelson, a 1990 graduate of Texas A&M; Emily and Oliver Osborn, a 1938 graduate of Texas A&M; and Donna and Norman J. Tetlow, a 1966 graduate of Texas A&M were recognized for completing funding for their respective gifts for endowed scholarships. The scholarships were established through the department’s C.D. Holland Scholars Program. This was the Nelsons and Tetlows second such gift.

In addition, T. Michael and Olive E. O’Connor established a fund in support of the activities by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, which was established by O’Connor in 1995 and is housed in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. The laboratory fund will provide support for maintenance, supplies and equipment that performs dispersion testing, calorimetry, chemical detection and explosion and flammability testing.

“This fulfillment of your initial pledges is a testament to your belief in this department and your commitment to investing in the future of this state and nation,” Pishko said, addressing the group of donors.

Pishko lauded the efforts of all of the department’s supporters as well, citing the awarding of more than $220,000 in scholarships to 120 students during this past academic year as evidence of their generosity. The investment of the department’s supporters in both dollars and energy, he said, is critical to enabling promising students and recruiting and retaining faculty members.

Pishko also noted that the department recently received pledges for two new scholarships. One scholarship will be funded by the children of William James Miller as a gift to their father, a 1950 graduate of Texas A&M. Miller is dedicating this scholarship to the memory of his former professor, J.D. Lindsay. A second scholarship pledge was made by Brent Myrick and Commonwealth Engineering and Construction and will establish the “John Bradford Myrick ’87 Scholarship.”

As part of the ceremonies, students in the C.D. Holland and J.D. Lindsay Scholars Program were recognized as well as those students who have received industry and individual scholarships and fellowships through the department. More than 40 of those students were new scholarship recipients for 2008-’09.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 6, 2008 – Tarun Bansal and Yeonshick Yoo, graduate students in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, each have been named a recipient of the Paul and Ellen Deisler Fellowship in Chemical Engineering.

These fellowships are awarded on the basis of scholarly productivity and excellence in graduate studies and include a $5,000 stipend.

A total of eight students were nominated for this year’s fellowships. The students’ applications were then ranked by a committee of faculty members from the department before a final determination was made based on the composite score of all faculty rankings for each candidate.

“We were delighted to receive notice from Dr. Michael Pishko that both of you had been awarded support for your studies from the Paul and Ellen Deisler Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Engineering,” stated Paul and Ellen Deisler in a letter to this year’s recipients.

“Congratulations to both of you on your success in passing the screening leading to making the award. We offer our best wishes to you for the successful completion of your studies and for success in your careers.”

The Paul and Ellen Deisler Fellowship in Chemical Engineering was endowed in 2000 by the Deislers as a means of promoting advanced studies in chemical engineering.

A World War II veteran, Paul Deisler completed his degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M in 1948. He earned his doctorate from Princeton in 1952 and then joined Shell Development Company where he led a successful career before retiring in 1986 as vice president for health, safety and environment at Shell Oil’s Houston headquarters. He is a distinguished alumnus of both the College of Engineering and the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. His wife, Ellen, is a graduate of the University of Colorado and fellow chemical engineer.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Sept. 29, 2008 – John Yin, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will discuss his research into virus growth Wednesday, Oct. 1, as part of the Fall 2008 J. D. Lindsay Lecture Series at Texas A&M University.

Yin is scheduled to present “Pandemic in a Petri Dish: Measures and Models of Virus Growth and Infection Spread” from 3-4 p.m. in Rm. 106 of the Jack E. Brown Building. His presentation is sponsored by Texas A&M’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

Yin studies virus-host interactions, systems biology, microfluidics and pre-biotic chemistry.

His presentation will highlight his recent progress on three fronts: engineered attenuation of virus growth for live-virus vaccines, measures and models of virus growth from single infected cells, and micro-fluidic characterization of virus infections for anti-viral drug testing.

Yin received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University. He earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Max-Planck-Institut fuer Biophysikalische Chemie in Goettingen, Germany.

Among his many distinctions, Yin has been named a Cargill Faculty Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering from the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also is a recipient of the NSF Young Investigator Award.

In honor of Professor J.D. Lindsay, Texas A&M’s first chemical engineering department head, the department established the Lindsay Lecture Series to bring speakers to the university. Coming from both industry and academia, the lecturers are recognized for their accomplishments in the practice, teaching and/or research of chemical engineering. The series also allows the lecturers several days for visiting the university and the department and for exchanging ideas on teaching and research objectives and methods.

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COLLEGE STATION, Sept. 22, 2008 – Jennifer Leigh Christensen, a senior in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named a recipient of the 2008-2009 Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award.

The award is considered the most prestigious honor bestowed on a graduating senior in the university’s Dwight Look College of Engineering and is presented to a student who demonstrates scholastic achievement, leadership skills and a strong moral character. Recipients must have a 3.5 minimum overall GPR, participate in numerous university organizations and posses such qualities as loyalty, honor, duty and integrity.

“Jennifer is an all-around outstanding student, and this award is richly deserved,” said Department Head and Charles D. Holland ’53 Professor Michael V. Pishko.

In addition to Christensen, who is from Hamilton, Texas, four other engineering students were named award winners: Eric Calderon of petroleum engineering, Andrea Ryan of civil engineering, Hayes Stripling of nuclear engineering and Matthew Waters of mechanical engineering.

The awards will be presented Oct. 16 at the Engineering Advisory Council Dinner at Pebble Creek Country Club. Each recipient will receive a cast medallion in a personalized Lucite block as part of the recognition ceremony and a $5,000 educational grant.

Formerly known as the Engineering Faculty Senior Award, it was renamed in 1996 to honor Craig C. Brown for his vision to expand and enhance the recognition program through a permanent endowment. Brown is a 1975 civil engineering graduate and past recipient of this coveted award. He is currently president, owner and COO of Bray International Inc. and president and chairman of the board of the Craig C. Brown Foundation.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Sept. 22, 2008 – Mert Atilhan, assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering at Qatar University in Doha and former graduate student of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been honored with the Qatar University 2008 Research Award.

The award, which is bestowed upon only one faculty member from Qatar University, was presented to Atilhan during the university’s convocation ceremonies this month.

While at Texas A&M, Atilhan was a graduate research assistant who studied under Professor Kenneth R. Hall before earning his doctorate in 2007. His research at Qatar University focuses on applied thermodynamics, thermophysical fluid properties, including natural gas and hydrates.

“I am not surprised that Dr. Atilhan has won this prestigious award,” Hall said. “He was an excellent and creative student while here, and he combined that talent with a desire to work hard.

“He has been remarkably successful at attracting research funding since joining Qatar University. Now he has the reputation of being a ‘do-er,’ and the Qatari industry has begun to approach him with projects in addition to those he develops himself.”

Atilhan has continued to work closely with Hall and Professor Mahmoud El-Halwagi, who also instructed him at Texas A&M and served on his Ph.D. committee. Together, the three faculty members are working on a joint project funded by the Qatar National Research Foundation.

“When Mert was a graduate student here, he distinguished himself as an outstanding researcher and very talented chemical engineer,” said El-Halwagi. “At present, Dr. Atilhan is leading major research efforts on the complex thermodynamic aspects of natural gas. His research is original, fundamental and applicable and will provide a significant impact on the design, operation, troubleshooting and optimization of natural gas processing facilities.

“In addition to being an excellent researcher, Dr. Atilhan also has proven himself to be a terrific teacher. Based on input that I have received from Qatar University faculty and students, Dr. Atilhan is lauded as a caring, dedicated and effective instructor.”

Established in 1973, Qatar University is comprised of seven colleges: the College of Education, the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Sharia & Islamic Studies, the College of Engineering, the College of Law, the College of Business & Economics and the College of Pharmacy. With more than 27,000 graduates and a faculty community of almost 700 members, the university is also an active member in several prestigious regional and international associations, including the Union of Arab Universities, the league of Islamic Universities, and the International Association of Universities.

The Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering will host an ice cream social for its undergraduate students from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 in the lobby of the Jack E. Brown Engineering Building.