Appendix C
Summary of Results of the Chemical Engineering Community Questionnaire
The committee originally planned to hold workshops and other meetings in conjunction with the annual meetings of relevant professional societies to solicit input for this study from the broader chemical engineering community. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic precluded such in-person gatherings. As an alternative, in spring 2021 the committee distributed a questionnaire to members of the chemical engineering community to gather broad input on challenges and opportunities for the discipline, as well as key needs in education and training.
The web link to the online questionnaire was distributed via email to subscribers to the mailing list for the National Academies’ Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (BCST). The questionnaire was open to anyone who wished to provide input. Additionally, members of the committee shared the invitation with their own professional networks. There were 43 complete responses and 249 partial responses. All questions were optional, including basic demographic information, which was collected only to help ensure an appropriate range of perspectives.
This appendix summarizes the input provided. Some responses have been edited or condensed for clarity. Note that the ideas and suggestions summarized here are those of the anonymous respondents to the online questionnaire and do not represent the views of the committee or the National Academies.
1. Across all of chemical engineering, what three fields of chemical engineering will be the most intellectually exciting/promising in the next decade?
- Energy and sustainable/renewable energy – 15
- Process automation/control/design/safety/data analytics – 8
- Environmental sustainability/engineering – 7
- Pharmaceuticals, therapeutics, personalized medicine, health care – 7
- Data science/AI – 6
- Biomedical engineering applications – 4
- Decarbonization (energy, transportation, etc.) – 4
- Electrochemistry, energy storage, batteries – 4
- Materials (engineering/processing/computat ional design) – 4
- Agriculture (artificial photosynthesis, safe food) – 3
- Bioprocess and process engineering – 3
- Biotechnology – 3
- Catalysis – 3
- Food process engineering – 3
- Green chemistry – 3
- Hydrogen (synthesis, use, storage) – 3
- Bio/Biochemical engineering – 2
- Biomolecular engineering – 2
- Environmentally friendly materials (i.e., biodegradable end products) – 2
- Modeling/Simulations – 2
- Multiscale modeling in biological systems – 2
- Nanotechnology – 2
- Plastics alternatives – 2
- Carbon, capture, utilization, storage – 1
- Chemical technology – 1
- Cosmetics – 1
- Educational technology, training – 1
- Entropy vs enthalpy-controlled systems – 1
- Global engineering – 1
- Green materials – 1
- Manufacturing of complex, non-Newtonian fluids - 1
- Membrane science – 1
- Reaction engineering - 1
- Recycling plastics and critical materials – 1
- Research and development – 1
- Water resources management – 1
2. Thinking about the next 10 to 30 years, what three fields of chemical engineering will have the greatest impact on emerging technologies, national needs, and/or the wider science and engineering enterprise?
- Energy/Renewable energy (its availability & processes) – 11
- Green/environmental engineering & sustainability – 8
- Catalysis – 6
- Electrochemistry/Batteries/Electronic materials – 5
- Materials science/processing/discovery/engineering – 5
- Biotechnology/Biopharmaceuti cals – 4
- Circular economy/LCA (recycling plastics/products) – 4
- Decarbonization – 4
- Pharmaceuticals (i.e., additive manufacturing, biopharma) – 4
- Biomolecular/Bioengineering – 3
- Food security/waste – 3
- Process control/data analytics/development and scale-up – 3
- Transport phenomena – 3
- Biomedical engineering – 2
- Clean water resources – 2
- Computing & AI (in all facets) – 2
- Health care/testing for public health – 2
- Rheology studies – 2
- Automation – 1
- Biochemistry/Biochemical engineering – 1
- Bio-defense – 1
- Bioprocess engineering – 1
- Carbon capture – 1
- Chemical technology – 1
- Cost-effective biodegradable end products – 1
- Food waste/loss – 1
- Hydrogen economy – 1
- Manufacturing – 1
- Multiscale simulation – 1
- Nanotechnology – 1
- Novel sensing – 1
- Nuclear – 1
- Plastics alternatives – 1
- Process energy optimization – 1
- Research and development – 1
- Separations – 1
- Systems integration – 1
3. Within your personal field of research or professional focus, what are the major goals for the next 10 to 30 years, and what are the major barriers to getting there?
| Goal(s) | Barrier(s) |
|---|---|
| Decarbonization & Reducing GHG Emissions | |
|
Decarbonization of global economy by 2050
Massive reductions in GHG emissions with politically acceptable impacts of standard of living In the last decades, chemical processes were based on petrochemistry. Not only fuels, but also most of the chemical commodities. To replace this fossil carbon by renewable carbon (biomass, CO2) is still a major challenge. Although in the last 15–20 years a big effort was paid to these processes, they are far from being competitive with petrochemical. Similar situation applies to hydrogen energy. 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, net zero by 2050 Low cost and scalable technology for carbon capture and storage, point source and direct air; Novel tech for low emission fuels for hard to decarbonize sectors, biofuels and hydrogen; Scalable and affordable negative emission biomass based technologies Sustainability, carbon capture, circular economy |
Lack of political consensus—because of this, other countries will develop winning technologies at scale
Adoption of alternative technology |
| Circular Economy | |
|
We are targeting to engage in circular economy.
Sustainability and next-gen manufacturing tech Sustainability |
The major barrier is the know-how to engage in it.
Lack of public understanding/appreciation for what goes into developing products Adoption of alternative technology |
| Sustainability, carbon capture, circular economy Plastics alternatives or recycling |
Cost effectiveness, matching performance/purity of recycled and materials |
| Improve agricultural practices | |
| Development of energy storage systems to make renewable energy more economically and practically feasible | Fragmented research across many disciplines that don’t speak the same language |
| Engineering of molecules that can interrogate and modulate physiological environments with greater precision and sensitivity than current diagnostics and therapeutics. | Proper mechanistic understanding of the system and the ability to design molecules to achieve the precise goal without off-target effects. |
| Biopharmaceutical Processes | |
| Move biopharmaceutical process development from being largely trial-and-error experimentation to becoming a systematic technology based on mechanistic models, data analytics, and process control Biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes that have the potential to replace the current processes while having major increases in quality, development time, and/or cost |
Individuals who control the funding are trial- and-error experimentalists and have a vested interest in maximizing the research funding to their own approach and activities Powerful vested interests want to continue to have the research funding go overwhelmingly into the existing established processes rather than to competing processes. Another barrier is a strong resistance to any new technology |
| Connecting industry to academia in a robust, respectful, and collaborative manner; connecting the various engineering disciplines to act on common problems that require consensus and convergence thinking | Things that have kept the groups apart over the years—including elitism, skeptical colleagues, and seemingly separate goals. |
| Robust engineering of cells for therapeutic delivery and tissue repair/regeneration | Understanding/defining principles for engineering cells for robust transgene expression and control |
| (i) Mathematical modeling of phase changes in flowing soft-matter systems (ii) Mathematical modeling of particle-laden interfaces | Major barriers for both are the proper problem formulation and computational resources |
| Digitization and automation of industry | |
| Industrial waste water recycling | Cost effectiveness and disposal options of reject streams |
| Breaking silos and creating partnerships to address grand challenges | |
| Lost-cost biodegradable products | |
| Materials de novo synthesis, analysis, then delivery to systems-level in context of specific applications | Shareholder short-term optimization in industry, see-sawing values for federal research grants |
| Fundamental understanding of physicochemical properties of catalysts and electrocatalysts relationship with activity and selectivity | Absence of adequate tools for atomic-level images of catalyst structure and composition under working conditions, multiscale simulation of performance of electrochemical systems |
| Sustaining and expanding manufacturing capability in the United States | Competing with off-shore sites that do not have the same labor and environmental requirements and more government subsidies and indirect government involvement |
| Innovative discoveries representing future directions of technology | Movement away from curiosity-driven research and tightening of funding with a focus on “deliverables” |
| Make oil and gas space more attractive to consumers | Make it greener with suitable applications for CO2 emissions |
| Development based on green chemistry new processes that account their environmental impact | |
| Good teaching schools for young chemical engineers |
4. Again, thinking about your personal field of research or professional focus, what is the societal relevance of your work, and what are the barriers to translation and/or scale-up?
| Societal relevance | Barrier |
|---|---|
| Decarbonization, GHG Emission Reduction, Reducing Climate Change | |
|
Decarbonization of the global economy by 2050
Zero-carbon technology to sustain humanity; energy storage Meeting the growing energy needs for the world as economies prosper while mitigating environmental impact including emissions Mitigating the impacts of climate change |
Lack of political consensus
Huge fossil fuel infrastructure makes it hard to scale renewable energy practically and economically Science-based, technology-neutral policy that incentivizes all relevant technologies to meet the dual challenge; ecosystems that promote partnerships and collaborations; skills and competencies for novel process development and scale-up Suitable regulatory policies |
|
Improve Human Health & Affordable Health Care
Human health (antibiotic-resistant infectious disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc.) Well-controlled cell-based therapeutics could reshape how we treat disease Improved biopharmaceutical manufacturing would result in higher quality products at lower cost and shorter time to market – more promising drugs make it to market Cancer drugs, drugs for COVID, COVID vaccine |
Physiological complexity Need to understand and develop cheap, simple quality control to ensure quality production of cells that are specific to patients to make it scalable Acquisition of funding. Biopharma doesn’t want to spend money to translate a technology that will help competitors, new tech draws resources from existing tech, incentivizing deemphasis on new tech. Academic reviewers also have vested interest in preventing translation of tech of other researchers Time for the heavily regulated industry to accept new manufacturing methods that will meet regulatory scrutiny and general risk aversion; continuous manufacturing is being implemented in biologics drug substance manufacturing |
| Sustainability/Circular Economy | |
| It will create employment and make our planet cleaner (circular economy) Environmental sustainability |
Availability of funds Cost effectiveness, performance of the alternatives or recycled options and trade-off with energy |
| Connecting diverse groups of STEM learners and practitioners to utilize all parts of our communities | |
| Political partisanship. Technoeconomic challenges can be solved, politics cannot | |
| Materials processing is necessary to turn materials into useful products | Chemical engineering research has shifted away from process-related questions toward chemical-/molecular-level details. Need fundamental research in materials processing, such as fluid mechanics and heat/mass transport. This needs industrial interaction, should be encouraged through establishment and generous support of programs like NSF GOALI |
| Catalytic upgrading of bioplatform molecules | Processes are not competitive, but regulations are pulling to phase out use of oil and even natural gas |
| Food engineering and sustainable technologies—innovated food technologies geared toward maternal and child health for local and global development supporting UNSDGs 2&17 | |
| Reducing water use across industries | Unit ops and processes in water are 100 years or older with little innovation. Need to rethink priorities at national education level to revitalize critical thinking and research in water use and unit operations/processes |
| Ensure a better future | Changing long established practices and adopting new approaches and technologies |
| Safe, efficient, environmentally sound petrochemicals production |
| Mitigate the human damage to the ecosystems | Free market capitalism and engineering triumphalism |
| Electrocatalysts will play an increasingly important role for fuel cells and electrolyzers for water-splitting to generate hydrogen and reducing CO2. Developing means for the efficient capture of CO2 and its conversion to chemicals holds immense opportunity | |
| Manufacturing provides more GDP impact and better salaries overall compared to service and other industries. Necessary for national security and not rely on outside sources excessively for strategic materials and capabilities | Need government to actively maintain a level playing field and use tariffs, etc., to enforce it, rather than lowering standards |
| Economic, social, food, and water systems are going to be disrupted by climate change if goals are not met | Barriers are political |
| Isolation of industrial scientist and engineers reduces the connection between academic knowledge and advances from industry knowledge and practice; industrial scientists are not able to participate in meaningful research projects and meetings, creating among other things, echo chamber for academics | |
| Plastics manufacturing, creating low-cost products that will be applied to food preservation and health security | |
| Oil and gas space is getting a lot of negative publicity, but it provides a cheap and reliable source of energy | More consumer friendly public relation pointers so that society as a whole realizes the importance of oil and gas energy space. Also challenge to mitigate CO2 emissions and find suitable applications/conversion technologies for CO2 |
| To improve the processes and making them more friendly toward the environment. | New mentality |
5. What are some of the key ideas/principles/drivers that have rotated out over the last 10 years in your field of research or professional focus? In other words, as new capabilities emerge in the field, which areas are making way for the new concepts?
| Theme | Individual Responses |
|---|---|
| AI/Machine learning/Data/Computational tools |
Traditional experimental phase equilibrium and property measurement is nearly nonexistent in academia or industry. New AI and machine learning tools need data for training—where are students going to learn it?
Developing biopharmaceutical processes based only on trial- and-error experimentation is being rotated out in the last 10 years in industry, as new capabilities emerge in process data analytics and machine learning, mechanistical modeling, and process control. Academia with rare exceptions have been slow to make way for these approaches which are not new in all of chemical engineering but have become increasingly important in biopharmaceutical process development as practiced in the leading biopharma companies and equipment vendors. The changes are happening in industry, whether trial-and-error experimentalists like it or not. Either academia can lead and contribute to these developments and contribute to society, translation, and scale-up, or they can keep gripping tighter and tighter on the past while harming U.S. competitiveness directly and indirectly by not producing the trained people needed by these changes in the industry. Computational tools are revolutionizing our understanding of gene regulation Manufacturing process, introduction of technology in industry |
| Circular economy |
Material balance, recycling, the chemistry for producing certain materials
Reliance on recycling is replacing only use of raw materials The production of commodity fuels from hydrocarbon sources is fading and will become, at best, like paper production today. Sustainability and life-cycle metrics will drive innovation, and transportation fuels from HC fails these tests. Similarly with current plastics production. Circular polymers with minimal waste is the new concept Recycling waste material (lithium batteries, plastic, municipal raw material, agricultural waste material) |
| Traditional processes/ChemE fundamentals are being lost—Losing depth in the field |
Traditional process engineering has suffered in the quest for federal R&D funding at the “leading edge.” It has materially harmed our national capability to produce competent engineers at the B.S. level for industries that exist today.
None. The fundamentals (applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transport, thermodynamics, and reaction engineering) are all still very relevant. I studied polymers in graduate school and ended up in biotechnology. Our graduate programs are teaching people how to become hyper experts in a field. We live in an interdisciplinary world, and we have to build skillsets in diverse areas. Traditional chemical engineering core competencies must be strengthened, and certainly not abandoned. However, instead of forcing undergrads to take two semesters of organic chemistry, how about encouraging them to take a course in biochemistry and another course in biochemical engineering instead? Teach chemical engineers the science underlying carbon capture and clean energy technologies. The chip shortage is a reminder that there is room for innovation and beefing up the supply chain. The field has shifted away from fundamentals and analysis and more toward empirical “gee-whiz” results. We are losing depth. |
| Bioengineering is rotating out; technology is taking over |
Biochemical engineering, biomedical engineering are two key areas that have rotated out of the way.
The field of nanotechnology, green-chemistry, and biomolecular engineering would be some of them. Some of the more industry-oriented technologies, such as the divided-wall-column, do show green technology potential in the near future. |
| Other |
Benefits and limitations of remote education and remote teamwork.
No need for all the irrelevant/redundant chemistry classes that are in the canonical curriculum. Computational/informatic/theoretical approaches are being hybridized with experimental approaches, both high-throughput/midfidelity and low-throughput/high fidelity. |
|
In my opinion, one of the key problems observed nowadays is the very different speeds of scientific development (very fast) and the aspects related to the scaling up and process engineering (traditionally a core of chemical engineering). We observe the fast development of new and very active catalysts for different processes (OER, HER, hydrogenation, photocatalysts, single-atom catalysts, MOFs), but there are very few attempts of scaling up. UN Sustainable Development Goals Hidden Hunger (micronutrient deficiencies); public–private partnership to address community needs. In cosmetics where I am working currently, trend is toward skin-friendly organic products. Six Sigma and Lean are over-blown concepts that have become a distraction and their own industry. The idea that climate science is questionable is rotating out, as climate change becomes more obvious. Heavy oil conversion process and catalyst development; hydroprocessing and hydroconversion catalyst and materials for conventional fuels; conventional petrochemical process R&D. |
6. What are the five most important areas of technical knowledge for chemical engineers to learn during an undergraduate degree?
- Thermodynamics – 16
- Computing, Machine Learning, Statistics, Data Science – 12
- Mass Transfer/Mass and Energy Balances – 9
- Transport Phenomena – 9
- Kinetics – 8
- Reaction Engineering – 8
- Applied Mathematics – 7
- Economics (Manufacturing and Scale-up) – 7
- Process Design/Engineering/Simulation – 7
- Process Control – 6
- Fluid Mechanics/Dynamics – 5
- Unit Operation Principles – 5
- Biology/Earth Sciences/Geology – 4
- Circular Economy/Sustainability – 4
- Heat Transfer – 4
- Systems Thinking/Engineering (i.e. Connecting engineering – techno-economic-social-cultural-geographical models for process flow) – 4
- Chemistry – 3
- Fact-based Analysis – 3
- Science of next generation clean energy generation and technologies – 3
- Catalysis – 2
- Chemical Reactor Engineering – 2
- Green Chemistry/Technologies – 2
- Heat & Material Balances – 2
- Nanotechnology – 2
- Biochemistry & Biochemical Engineering – 1
- Entrepreneurship – 1
- Food & Nutrition Security – 1
- Humanities – 1
- Leadership – 1
- Manufacturing – 1
- Momentum Transfer – 1
- R&D – 1
- Reach Methodology – 1
- Physics – 1
- Separations – 1
- Synthesis of new materials) – 1
- Vaccine Development – 1
7. What are the five most important areas of technical knowledge for chemical engineers to learn during a graduate degree?
- Numerical Methods/Statistics/Mathematical Modeling – 12
- Thermodynamics – 7
- Advanced Transport/Transport Phenomena – 6
- Modeling & Simulation – 5
- Circular Economy & Sustainability (Hydrogen Economy, Decarbonization, etc.) – 4
- Reaction Engineering – 4
- Heat & Mass Transfer – 3
- Kinetics – 3
- Process Engineering/Systems/Design – 3
- Research Methodology & Experimental Design – 3
- Specialized areas relevant to Thesis – 3
- Advanced Reactors/Reactor Design – 2
- AI/Computer Science – 2
- Applied Mathematics – 2
- Biology – 2
- Biomolecular Engineering/Bioengineering – 2
- Bio and Biomedical Applications (Vaccine Development) – 2
- Catalysis – 2
- Data Science/Big Data Analytics – 2
- Economics/Cost Estimation – 2
- Good Writing Skills/Technical Writing – 2
- Green Processes/Technologies – 2
- Nanotechnology – 2
- Renewable Energy – 2
- Self-Awareness, Emotional Intelligence, Conflict Resolution – 2
- Systems Thinking (i.e. connecting engineering-techno-economic-social-cultural-geographical models for process flow) – 2
- Time Management & Prioritization/Project Management – 2
- Water Resources Management/Treatment – 2
- Active Materials and Low Energy Separations – 1
- Advanced Manufacturing – 1
- Advanced Chemical Synthesis – 1
- Biodegradable Science – 1
- Chemistry – 1
- Communicating difficult concepts to a wide audience – 1
- Convergence Technologies – 1
- Digitalization – 1
- Drug Development – 1
- Environmental Impact Assessment – 1
- Fluid Mechanics – 1
- Food and Nutrition Security – 1
- Heat and Material Balances – 1
- Industry Standards – 1
- Instrumentation, Control, Digital Signals and Control – 1
- Leadership – 1
- Materials Science – 1
- Model Discrimination & Parameter Estimation – 1
- Momentum Transfer – 1
- Operations Research – 1
- Problem Solving – 1
- Process Innovation and Scaleup – 1
- Process Intensification – 1
- Physics – 1
- Rheology (non-Newtonian) – 1
- Thermofluids – 1
- Unit Operations – 1
- Unit Operations in Mars – 1
8. Based on your own experience or those of your recent hires, what skills are missing from chemical engineering undergraduate and/or graduate education (please include skills that are important, but you/your employees have needed to learn outside of a standard chemical engineering curriculum)?
- Computing, Data Science and Analytics, Statistics – 9
- Effective Writing & Communication Skills – 9
- Humanities & Social Sciences (all students benefit from these courses, benefits to interdisciplinary learning) – 3
- Creativity – 2
- Economics – 2
- Holistic Process Development (Need students to be good at lab, experimentation/simulation, and modeling) – 2
- Understanding phenomena and their relationship to complex processes – 2
- Advanced Math (Linear Algebra) – 1
- Analytical Thinking – 1
- Basic General Knowledge of Experimental Work – 1
- Biology from an engineering perspective – 1
- Climate Change, Sustainability & Circularity – 1
- Entrepreneurship – 1
- Fundamental Chemistry – 1
- Green Chemistry – 1
- Hands-on Experience – 1
- Independence – 1
- Industrial Exposure/Industry Standards – 1
- Leadership – 1
- Operation Research Skills – 1
- Overall Familiarity with Instrumentation and Control Systems – 1
- Particle Technology and Solids Handling – 1
- Practical Experience – 1
- Process Control/Process Dynamics/Process Simulation – 1
- Project Flowsheet – 1
- Societal Impacts of Technology – 1
- Transport Phenomena – 1
9. In what way(s) might interdisciplinary or emerging topics (for example biology, sustainability, data science, polymers, nanomaterials, etc.) be better integrated into chemical engineering undergraduate and/or graduate education?
- Circular Economy/Sustainability – 8
- Data Science, AI, Robotics – 6
- Incorporate broader array of real-world problems within the ChE core – 5
- Community Engagement and Practical Experience (Project, Internships, Field Trips) – 3
- Interdisciplinary topics are useful as a way of synthesizing knowledge from core classes, but should not be a substitute for acquiring fundamental numerical skills that are only learned in college – 3
- Polymer Chemistry – 3
- Biology/Biological Engineering – 2
- Collaborating with and Exposure to Industry – 2
- Integrate emerging topics into core curriculum rather than creating specialized ones – 2
- Nanotechnology – 2
- New Requirement: ChEs to take classes outside of the ChE Department – 2
- Applied ChE – 1
- Applied Statistics – 1
- Establish Forums at Universities to Encourage Entrepreneurship Around Innovative Technologies – 1
- Focused seminars/courses (grad) – 1
- Geosciences – 1
- Guest lectures (undergrad) – 1
- Project-based work with other Engineers – 1
- Quantum Computing – 1
- Separate modules (grad) – 1
- Transversal issues can be introduced in classical undergrad modules (undergrad) – 1
10. What are the biggest barriers to increasing the diversity of the chemical engineering workforce?
- Current pool of undergrads is not very diverse; Diversity in STEM needs to start at a younger age (i.e., high school) – 5
- Perception/Marketing issue—positive aspects (financial benefits, sustainability) of ChE not emphasized enough and negative perceptions (too hard or boring, not forward looking enough) of ChE need to be squashed – 5
- Lack of resources to attract and retain high-quality people (including scholarships) – 3
- Negative American political ethos (anti-immigration policy, prejudice, bigotry, discrimination, sexism, homophobia, racism) – 3
- Not enough mentors or role models to seek guidance – 3
- Develop STEM programs that support URM throughout college – 2
- Better involvement of women in STEM – 1
- Declining higher education enrollments – 1
- Increase opportunities for a broader community – 1
- Lack of diversity within faculty/educational institutions are the barrier – 1
- Lack of incentives for encouraging diversity – 1
- Lack of outreach to URM students – 1
- Lack of time to invest in this activity – 1
- Limited job and growth opportunities in conventional ChE fields – 1
- Myth of Meritocracy – 1
- Narrow-minded thinking – 1
- Other fields such as health care, medicine, bioengineering, computer and data science, finance, etc., are deemed to be more exciting than conventional ChE – 1
- URM aren’t attracted to ChE in part because of its lack of diversity – 1
11. How does the U.S. remain competitive and at the cutting edge in chemical engineering? And how do we establish and maintain important international collaborations?
- Attract more foreign students to study in the U.S. (and reforming U.S. immigration policy) – 5
- Modify ChE education (i.e., need more innovation in undergrad curriculum (ABET should be radically modified); we need to reconnect academia with the actual practice of engineering; need to increase STEM education at a younger age) – 5
- International collaborations should be with countries that are committed to our same values of democracy, intellectual property, and openness – 3
- AIChE growing a global network of student chapters – 2
- ChE not prioritized in the U.S.; funding agencies do not provide incentives for U.S. faculty to work on unresolved ChE problems – 2
- Diversity of opinion and looking at the problems from multiple perspectives are key to innovative solutions – 2
- Identify the wide breadth of opportunities where chemical engineers can be a driving force; expose the community (at all career stages) to these opportunities – 2
- Systems-thinking approach coupled with a quest for innovation; make ChE more interdisciplinary – 2
- To establish and maintain important international collaborations, parties should ensure mutual benefit by protecting intellectual property – 2
- U.S. universities would need to increase its hiring/teaching in chemical engineering topical areas of importance to growing high-tech industries (topical areas include particle technology, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, advanced industrial polymers, energy challenges and lead in discovery, development and deployment of new breakthrough technologies for low-carbon future, etc.) – 2
- By engaging with different entities in our professional societies, research endeavors and transparent interactions in the international/global realm – 1
- Establish ecosystems to further partnership and collaboration with academia, government, and industry to accelerate advancement of new technologies – 1
- Incentivize domestic students to pursue ChE – 1
- International collaborations are less important, build expertise and facilities here in the U.S. – 1
- Maintenance of an interactive academia and industry focus; along with support of industrial development into the future – 1
- More global collaboration to share best practices and ideas – 1
- Processing of advanced materials has not received nearly the amount of focus it should relative to its importance; this problem could be addressed by providing more research support for the fundamentals that play a key role in materials processing, such as fluid mechanics and heat/mass transport – 1
- U.S. universities should be encouraged to set up their campuses in other countries, and offer the same enriched engineering curriculum experience and quality of education as it would on their main campuses in the mainland USA – 1
12. Please use this box for any additional input related to the committee’s charge or the questions above.
- The focus needs to capture nonresearch elements.
- Chemical engineering should include basic general knowledge like who is the president/prime minister of their country and US, UK, China, etc. Should have their field training during their course of work. Sound grasp on computer tools like Excel, Word, etc. And also chemical engineering or any other course should have the capacity to generate research skills in students.
- Focus on non-hyped, fact-based analysis.
- The hallmark of chemical engineers is their ability to blend in a seamless manner knowledge from the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics.
- Chemical engineering input is needed to assess proposed solutions to climate change and other modern challenges, so that solutions that do not make sense can be ruled out early, rather than wasting time and money on them. An example is government funding of research to use coal in green hydrogen processes.
- We focus so much on “identifying a set of … new chemical engineering areas,” but what we miss is the ability to discover truly new areas or solutions to grand challenges. The investments the U.S. is making in science and engineering lag far behind especially Asia (China, Singapore, Korea) and the investments made by industry are even worse. How do we reverse this trend? How do we recommit U.S. enterprises to innovation in the chemical and biological sciences? Perhaps the richest area today for chemical engineers in terms of new science and technology is pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially biologics, and “new” technologies (or finally recognized technologies) like mRNA vaccines.
- I’d like to see AIChE spend more time teaching/mentoring younger students.
- At present, the chemical engineering community is losing its potential chemical engineers of the future to other branches of science, and engineering, for the simple fact that these students who are in the high school age group are not exposed to the wonders of chemical engineering, and they do not have role models to look up to. For instance, news such as self-driving cars, or autonomous drones, really gets students excited; however, the same is not made visible to these students by the chemical engineering field, and industry experts. Right now, quite a number of students identify the field of chemical engineering with global warming challenges and CO2 emissions, which is not a fair assessment.
- Chemical engineering, especially in the leading academic institutions, has increasingly turned to the microscopic. Process technology has been a technologically mature field, with incremental advances, and mostly an industry with a sedate pace of new construction and retrofits. But handling large volumes of materials cannot remain at the micro scale outside the lab. It requires the competent design, construction, and operation of process operations.
