2008 - 2009 AIChE NORCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTIONS
CANDIDATE PROFILES
NOMINATED POSITION: Vice-Chair
NAME: Jean Bender
EDUCATION: BS Chemical Engineering, Lehigh Unversity, Bethlehem PA.; MS Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
LOCAL/NATIONAL AIChE INVOLVEMENT: Member since 1997, GAC Committee Member for AIChE Annual Meeting 2001 (Reno), 2003 (San Francisco), 2006 (San Francisco). Co-Meeting Program Chair for Spring National Meeting 2007 (New Orleans). Chaired NorCal Symposium "The Many Facets of Biotechnology" in April 2008. Co-chaired NorCal Symposium "Emerging Trends in Biotechnology" in April 2003. I have also coordinated Genentech facility tours for NorCal dinner meetings, given presentations to University of Nevada, Reno AIChE group, UC Berkeley AIChE group and UC Davis AIChE group. Treasurer (2002-2003) for the Process Development Division. Have served as Chair and Co-Chair and have given presentations at several sessions at AIChE's Annual Meetings.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Celebrating 16 years at Genentech where I've worked in Process Development and Process Engineering Departments. Currently I manage a team of scientists and engineers supporting both Late Stage Purification and Technology Transfer Initiatives. Publications include journal articles, book chapters and presentations at National and International meetings.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: For my first official involvement on the GAC committee I volunteered to chair the fundraising effort. The team exceeded their fundraising target and brought in sponsors that had not previously supported this event. That initial success, coupled with the friendships and networking I experienced, brought me back again and again to support NorCal and National AIChE events. Through AIChE I have re-connected with several colleagues from college and have been able to work directly with many leaders within the industry and AIChE organization. I have been grateful for the opportunity to work with the Chemical Engineering Class and Department at the University of Nevada at Reno. I have continued to promote AIChE within Genentech and have been successful soliciting Genentech's repeated sponsorship for Annual Meetings and Symposium.
My goal as Vice Chair will be to help NorCal meet its membership and financial targets, promote benefits of participation in local events and to capture the interest of the Bay Area chemical engineering community through Symposium and monthly meetings. I will seek to collaborate with other local Engineering organizations to identify synergies and common interest areas leading to co-sponsored meetings and events. I hope to help maintain NorCal's positive image at the National level and have fun while contributing my time and energy toward this most relevant and dynamic organization.
NAME: Haiqing Lin EDUCATION: B.S. (Xiamen University, P.R. China), M.S. (North Carolina State University) and Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin) in Chemical Engineering LOCAL/NATIONAL AIChE INVOLVEMENT: Treasurer of AIChE NorCal since 2006; Active coach for local AIChE/ACS Interview Workshops; AIChE-NorCal member since 2006; National AIChE member since 2003; Session co-chair in 2006 Annual AIChE National Conference; Paper presenter in 2003 and 2005 Annual AIChE National Conferences; Winner of 2006 AIChE Separation Division Graduate Student Award on Membrane-based Separations. EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Three year of experience as a Senior Research Engineer and Group Leader of Gas Separation at Membrane Technology & Research, Inc. CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." I am always interested in participating in AIChE activities at both national and local levels. This organization has served many chemical engineers well including myself, by providing an effective vehicle to improve communications among chemical engineers from various industries, to expand one's horizons and to provide training in one's leadership skills. After benefiting so much from the society in my professional career, I would like to contribute my time and energy to this society to better serve the members.
As Secretary, I will fulfill the secretary's position facilitating the running of AIChE-NorCal executive committee meeting and promote our organization among chemical engineers in Northern California.
NAME: John A. Marr
EDUCATION: B.S. Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College, 1982 ; M.S. Computer Science, New York Institute of Technology, 1984; M.Ch.E. University of Houston, 2000
LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: AIChE Member since 1982
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: John has over 24 years of experience in the chemical, refining, and advanced process control industries. He is currently the team lead for the process control applications group at ConocoPhillips' San Francisco refinery. John has also worked for Texaco Chemical (Port Arthur, TX) as a technical service engineer on a reformer/cyclohexane plant, Phillips Petroleum (Old Ocean, TX) as a process control engineer on the startup of a grass-roots ethylene plant, Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation (Houston, TX) as an advanced process control consultant to the chemical/refining industries, and Aspen Technology (Texas, UK, Holland, Canada, and California offices) as both a manager mentoring junior engineers as well as an advanced process control consultant.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: A strong local AIChE chapter helps to improve the careers of both students and experienced engineers alike. My ambition is to contribute to the direction of the Northern California chapter of the AIChE for years to come.
NOMINATED POSITION: Directors at Large (Five Positions)
NAME: Kraig L. Kurucz
EDUCATION: BS Ch.E. California State University, Long Beach; MS Civil and Environmental Engineering .with a specialization in Air Pollution Control, University of Southern California
LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: Member since College. Local chapter board member 2007.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Kraig has over 20 years of experience in combustion research, environmental consulting and Environmental, Safety, and Health Management. Kraig is currently the Environmental Health and Safety Manager for Intel's operations in CA and previously managed Environmental Programs for America. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering and Master Degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Air Pollution Control and has earned the Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) designation. He is in his seventh year serving on the Advisory Council to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and was the chair for 2006.
Prior to joining Intel Kraig managed Air and Water Quality programs at Lockheed Martin Corporation, Missiles and Space Division in Sunnyvale CA. Prior to that Kraig had similar responsibilities at McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach California. In that role, Kraig sat as an expert member of an EPA technology verification panel for paint arrestors. He has previously worked as an environmental consultant for Parson Engineering, and performed clean combustion research on EPA and DOE grants on pilot systems and full size utility boilers with Energy and Environmental Research.
Kraig has earned the Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) designation. He is in his seventh year serving on the Advisory Council to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and currently chairs the Technical Committee.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: I believe I can continue to improve the Chapter and help select monthly meeting topics that will continue to open the eyes of current and future chemical engineers to the breadth of interests and industries that can be improved with experts in chemical engineering.
NAME: Wei Huang EDUCATION: M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland; B.S. Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: National member since 1990
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Wei has over 18 years of industrial experience in the biofuel, biopharmaceutical, chemical and food industry. Her experience includes facility/equipment design, process development, operation support, research and development. Wei is currently Vice President, Process Development and Engineering of LS9, Inc. In this role, she leads the bioprocess development and engineering efforts to bring a second generation biofuel from research to manufacturing. Prior to joining LS9, Inc., Wei is the director of process engineering at Fluor Corporation under the Manufacturing and Life Science business line. In this capacity, she was responsible for conceptual and detail process engineering design for the biopharmaceutical industry. She is also responsible for process group management. During her tenure with Fluor, Wei had held a variety of roles in office management and process engineering. She was a key member to help to design and build world's largest Biopharmaceutical plant.
Prior to joining Fluor, Wei worked for Bechtel, New Brunswick Scientific and North American Vaccine (now Baxter), where she was responsible for process design, project engineering and process development and scale-up for various processes and facilities in the chemical, food and biopharmaceutical industry.
Active in a number of professional and business organizations such as AIChE, ISPE, ACS and ASME, Wei is a frequent speaker at various international conferences and technical events. She is an award winner at ISPE publication. Wei is also a member of ASME Bioprocess Equipment (BPE) design committee, helping to develop industry's design standard and best practice.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: I have been with AIChE for more than 18yr. It is great be a member of an organization that provide not only leadership and networking opportunity for the professionals, but also offered breadth of resources and expertise in a wide spectrum of technologies. It will be my honor to participate in the bay area local AIChE chapter in whatever capacity I can. Bay area is the hot bed for biotechnology, refinery and high tech industry, which offers variety of opportunities for chemical engineers. I would like to see us continue to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration among different institutes and industries, enhance engineering education and member participation, and make the bay area chapter most active and recognized in the nation.
NAME: Mark Privitera EDUCATION: B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: Member since 1984, Past Session Chair, Past Committee Member, Past Technical Presenter
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Marc has over 20 years of industrial experience in the various chemical engineering industries. Marc is currently Vice President, Engineering for BioFuelBox. In this role, Marc leads a team of engineers out to change the world by developing a unique biodiesel processing technology. Prior to joining BioFuelBox, Marc was a Research Fellow for the Clorox Company delivering a wide range of technology solutions built on practical data driven experimentation in a team oriented and collaborative environment. Loved as a friend and mentor to many colleagues, he has been described as being the heart and soul of the technical organizations that he has led and influenced over his career. A hallmark of Marc's experience is the passion and energy that he brings to technology development and system engineering efforts. Marc has had an unwavering commitment to safety first, and is one of the driving forces in the development of world class hazardous materials handling engineering and operations ensuring unmatched safety in handling chlorine, caustic, flammable liquids and various other hazardous materials. A six sigma black belt coupled with chemical engineering educational and professional development background with the double as also having been trained as a controls systems engineer. This combination of engineering skills has given him a knack for applying not only base engineering principles but also early experimentation and driving practical solutions to the challenges throughout the concept development of the idea to execution of product delivery in the marketplace. A valued team leader, having built many sustainable and caring people development programs throughout his career.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: Passion, pride and perserverence are three needed traits of the great American engineering know how to attack the economic challenges that face the country. Chemical engineers are uniquely positioned as the change agents for a whole new balance of not only economic, but also environmental power that if played right will leave a lasting legacy that future generations will look back upon with pride. As the chemical engineering discipline has had a legacy of being the premier value creation experts by using our conversion technology mastery, we are the ones who can lead in the innovation of converting clean, renewable and American raw materials into the products that will sustainably fuel our great American way of life for generations into the future. A Membership Chair is all about developing relationships and making all feel welcome. For Nor-Cal AIChE, it's the need to get beyond just the routine and make the vibe of the group energetic but not overwhelming. Having recruited and built various programs for entry into the profession for many young engineers, I look forward to the possibility of building relationships and passion in the chapter's membership. NAME: Marcus Mello EDUCATION: Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Canada; M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Brazil; B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: Member since 1999
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Marcus has over 10 years of industrial experience in the oil & gas, process
engineering consulting, specialty chemicals and environmental industries. In addition, he has a strong academic and research background in Chemical
Engineering. Marcus is currently Senior Research Engineer with Chevron Corp., working in Separations Technologies for the Process Technology group
in Richmond, CA. In his current position, Marcus is responsible for multiple R&D projects, which includes development of concept, business case
development, design and operation of bench scale units for proof-of-concept, capacity scale up, pilot plant commissioning & testing and economic analysis.
Marcus is also responsible for generating new business for his group through submitting ideas for new research and technology projects and is a technical
liaison and advisor in R&D partnerships between Chevron and universities and industry/university consortiums. Before joining Chevron, Marcus was a Process
Technology Engineer with Degussa doing consulting work in the feed additives business unit. He was also with Petrobras in Brazil, working as a Process
Engineer in the design of offshore oil platforms. During his Ph.D. studies, Marcus developed expertise in Adsorption Separations and new zeolite materials.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: My vision as a candidate for a Board member of the AIChE Norcal is to
contribute to the development of our Section through increase in membership and participation. To achieve that, I believe our direction should be to
continue engaging prominent members of our Chemical Engineering community for presentations/events and offer opportunities for members to network and
integrate in our community. NAME: Chris Coen EDUCATION: BS Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College, Easton, PA; PhD Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: While I have participated as a student more than as a professional, I'm looking forward to re-engaging in the local AIChE community. In the past, I've served as Treasurer in the Lafayette College student chapter and presented a paper at an Annual Meeting
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: 10 years at OSIsoft developing software for the process industries. As a software developer, I focused on visualization and batch tools. Currently,
as a Product Manager in charge of Batch products, I bring the customer perspective to the development process to ensure we create valuable products
for our customers. I'm also serving a term on OSIsoft's Technical Steering Committee, which makes recommendations for technical aspects of our corporate strategy.
CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: I'm looking forward to helping the Northern California chapter's continued
success. While there is a high membership level, there are opportunities in increasing participation among members. This must lie in maximizing the
value of events to the members and making sure we communicate that value to them. Being relatively new to this chapter and knowing other board members,
I feel I can bring a fresh perspective to the chapter. It's also a great opportunity to serve with other members of the board whom I have worked with
in graduate school. NOMINATED POSITION: Sierra Subsection Director NAME: Alan Fuchs EDUCATION: B.S. Chemical Engineering, Cooper Union; M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester; Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Tufts University LOCAL/NATIONAL AICHE INVOLVEMENT: Last year I served as the chair of the Sierra Subsection of the NorCal AIChE. We were successful in introducing a new Sierra Subsection Award which was given to Dr. Jay Keasling, from U.C.Berkeley, for his work in malaria vaccines and biofuels. This was a major event hosted at UNR. I have also brought students to many NorCal events during the last eight years, several plant trips and NorCal meetings. I attended the annual conference in San Francisco and have attended the national meeting every year for the last eight years where my students and I present our research. EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Twelve years of industry experience at Rohm and Haas Company followed by eight years of academic experience as faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). During my industrial experience I had the opportunity to work in research and product and process development and manufacturing. My entire career has been related to polymer science and engineering. At a Rohm and Haas subsidiary, Romicon, I worked in the areas of synthesis, characterization and applications of ultrafiltration membranes and processes. At UNR, I teach classes in design, separation processes, thermodynamics and polymer science and engineering and I do research related to the synthesis and characterization of polymer materials. CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT: I am pleased to be considered for my second year as chair of the Sierra subsection of the NorCal AIChE. As part of this second year I hope we can collaborate with faculty at U.C. Davis to make the Sierra Subsection Award a permanent award to be given every year. In addition, I hope to continue my collaboration with other faculty in the NorCal universities. I believe that my unusual combination of industrial and academic experience gives me a unique perspective. For example, during the past three years I have collaborated with several companies and government agencies in Northern California to develop senior design projects. These projects have been very successful and have given the students an opportunity to work with high quality companies and at the same time the companies have been able to get to know these students. I would like to extend this effort by working with AIChE members to provide career opportunity workshops for students and identifying job fairs in Northern California which students could participate.
There is also a need to connect with mid-career professions and make the AIChE local section more relevant to them. These members include both executive level chemical engineers and AIChE members who are practicing engineers and mid-level managers. I will approach this by working with these members to identify the interactions which these members would be most interested in pursuing. This will include interactions with AIChE members and officers in other local sections as well as nationally. A new session at the national meeting focused on these interactions could be an outcome of this approach.
There are 2 ways to vote: You can vote on-line (below) or by
sending an e-mail to pastchair@aiche-norcal.org
with an appropriate "X" marked for your selected candidates below.
All ballots must be received by 5:00 pm
on July 7th. You must include your name at the bottom
so your membership can be verified before your vote is counted. Please vote for one candidate in each category.
Election Ballot for 2008-2009 AIChE NorCal Executive Committee
Northern California Section
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