Fellow candidates are nominated by their peers and generally have about 25 years of significant practice in chemical engineering. They should also have demonstrated significant service to the profession, and have been a member of AIChE for at least 10 years.
Meet some of AIChE's recently elected fellows below, who were also featured in the April issue of CEP magazine.
Marco J. Castaldi
Marco J. Castaldi is a professor of chemical engineering and program director of Earth System Science and Environmental Engineering at the City College of New York, where his research focuses on making current and future processes more environmentally benign. He has worked extensively with AIChE's Sustainable Engineering Forum and the Research and New Technology Committee. He organized the Waste and Biomass Valorization Topical Conference at the 2011 Spring Meeting and a recent workshop entitled "Megacity Sustainable Waste Management: A Roadmap for New York City." He earned his PhD in chemical engineering at the Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Panagiotis D. Christofides
Panagiotis D. Christofides is the William D. Van Vorst Chair in the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Univ. of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include nonlinear and predictive control as well as analysis and control of distributed parameter, multiscale, and hybrid systems, with applications in chemical processes, advanced materials processing, particulate processes, and energy water systems. He has served on the editorial board of several journals and has been active in AIChE's computing and Systems Technology Div. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Minnesota.
Kristen A. Fichthorn
Kristen A. Fichthorn is the Merrell Fenske Professor of Chemical Engineering and a professor of physics at the Pennsylvania State Univ. Her research focuses on atomic-scale simulation of fluid-solid interfaces with applications in thin-film and crystal growth, colloidal assembly and stability, catalysis at surfaces, wetting and spreading, lubrication, and separations. She also develops new methods to accurately include atomic-scale details in computer simulations that can reach large length scales and/or long time scales. She has authored more than 130 papers on these topics. She earned her PhD in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Michigan.
Mary K. Lynch
Mary K. Lynch is a senior engineer at Consolidated Edison Co. of New York. She is also an advocate for STEM education, and creates career guidance literature that she uses during her visits to high schools, colleges, and science centers in the New York City area. Within AIChE, she has been a member and leader of the New York Local Selection since the 1980s, and has served as chair for regional conferences. She is also active in AIChE's Local Sections Committee and the Women's Initiatives Committee. She earned a BE in chemical engineering from the Cooper Union and an MS in organizational leadership from Mercy College.
Jimmy Don Orr, P.E.
Jimmy Don Orr, P.E., is group leader for safety valve validations at Jacobs Engineering (Baton Rouge, LA). He has worked in the Texas Gulf Coast chemical industries for more than 40 years, with extensive experience in process research, process design, plant operations, and project management. He is active in AIChE's Baton Rouge Local Section, and has organized many technical sessions for AIChE meetings. He is also a coach and mentor to young engineers. He earned his BS at the Univ. of Houston and his MS at Texas A&M Univ., both in chemical engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana.
Mark A. Stadtherr
Mark A. Stadtherr is Research Professor in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering at the Univ. of Texas at Austin and Kearing Crawford Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Univ. of Notre Dame. Previously, he was on the chemical engineering faculty at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His primary teaching interests are process safety, process design, ecological and environmental modeling, and optimization. He has published more than 180 research papers in the areas of optimization and modeling. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison.