Global Chemical Engineers Community Will Meet at Orlando Conference Offering More Than 750 Technical Sessions

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will spotlight the roles that chemical engineers play in addressing societal and industrial challenges when the organization’s 2019 Annual Meeting convenes in Orlando, Florida, November 10–15.

The conference, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Orlando, is expected to attract thousands of chemical engineering researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the world. Together, they will join in a future-focused survey of the profession’s latest developments.

The meeting’s technical program consists of nearly 800 sessions across more than 20 program tracks — all showcasing chemical engineers’ game-changing contributions to the world, and the diverse workforce that makes those contributions possible.

Among the highlights is an expanded program devoted to Next Generation Manufacturing, incorporating topics such as process intensification, modular manufacturing, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and advanced methods for pharmaceuticals production.

New topical conferences will cover food innovation, entrepreneurship, and data science applied to molecular and materials engineering. Other program tracks are dedicated to the role of chemical engineers in medicine; energy — including fossil, ammonia, synthetic and renewable fuels; microbes; green process engineering; sensors; and more.

With its emphasis on technical innovation and the professional growth of chemical engineers, AIChE’s Annual Meeting is the foremost educational forum for chemical engineers working in research and development. Organizers expect more than 5,000 professional engineers, scientists, and business leaders to attend the meeting to acquire insight into developments in the field’s growth areas and to connect with fellow professionals.

Highlights

With innovation a crucial component for achieving the breakthroughs needed to solve global problems, the meeting features a Meet the Innovators panel discussion (November 12), with insights from thought-leaders including Rakesh Agrawal (Purdue University), Jay Keasling (University of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley National Lab), and Christine Schmidt (University of Florida).

Another panel, on Data Science Education in Chemical Engineering, will advocate for the integration of data science into the chemical engineering curriculum as a foundation for modern practice and innovation.

The meeting is also the venue for two co-located specialty conferences. The Conference on Engineering Cosmetics and Consumer Products (November 9–10) will offer a window into new approaches for manufacturing, packaging, and engineering these products. Also on November 9–10, the Industrial Water Use and Reuse Workshop will address the status of water usage, treatment, and recycling in the oil and gas sector.

At the Annual Student Conference (November 8–11), more than 1,500 chemical engineering undergraduates from around the world will take part in career workshops, scholarly and intercollegiate competitions, and networking events. The Student Conference kicks off on November 9 with a welcome keynote address by Karen McKee, President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company. This Student Conference is also the venue for the 21st running of AIChE’s signature Chem-E-Car Competition (Sunday, November 10).

Also on Sunday, undergraduates and profession chemical engineers alike will exhibit interactive tabletop demonstrations of chemical engineering principles to an audience of grade school students, science teachers, and parents at AIChE’s inaugural K–12 STEM Showcase. 

Major Lectures:

• The John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecture, Wednesday, November 13. Karen K. Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser (1960) Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver a lecture entitled “From Chemical Engineering Fundamentals to the Commercialization of Vapor Deposited Polymers.”
• The inaugural Presidential Lecture, Monday, November 11, will be presented by Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, whose talk will reflect on the rise of “hybrid jobs,” and the need to supplement technical expertise with human skills in order to excel.
• The inaugural William R. Schowalter Lecture, Wednesday, November 13, has been endowed by the AIChE Foundation to honor Schowalter, a pioneer in fluid mechanics. The lecture will be given Michael D. Graham, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison. His talk describes “Flowing Complex Fluids, from Blood to the Buffer Layer.”
• The Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering Lecture, Tuesday, November 12. This lecture will be given by AIChE’s 2018 Acrivos Award recipient, Martin Z. Bazant, the E. G. Roos (1944) Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics at MIT. His talk will describe “Control of Interfacial Stability in Electrochemical Systems.”
• The James E. Bailey Award Lecture, Tuesday, November 12. Presented by AIChE’s Society for Biological Engineering (SBE), the Bailey Award recognizes outstanding contributions in biological engineering. The 2019 Bailey Award recipient — Jens B. Nielsen, Professor at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) — will discuss the systems biology of metabolism, and its role in the production of biofuels and the diagnosis of metabolic diseases.
• The SBE’s Daniel I. C. Wang Award Lecture, Tuesday, November 12, will be presented by Douglas Clark, Dean and G. N. Lewis Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His talk is entitled “From Artificial Cofactors to Synthetic Arrays: Teaching Old Enzymes New Tricks.”
• On Tuesday, November 12, Carlos Rinaldi, Professor at the University of Florida, describes the response of magnetic nanoparticles to time-varying magnetic fields in his IACChE James
• Y. Oldshue Lecture. The lecture is presented in alternate years by AIChE and the Inter-American Confederation of Chemical Engineering (IACChE).

For information about conference registration and a detailed schedule of events, visit www.aiche.org/annual.