Participation at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting — held Oct. 27–31 in San Diego, CA — topped 5,800, with chemical engineering researchers and allied professionals worldwide gathering to “reimagine chemical engineering” for a sustainable future.
Sustainable innovations take center stage
On that theme, a new topical conference explored sustainable pathways toward hydrogen-based and synthetic fuels. Another showcased innovations in sustainable materials for energy, environmental, and biomedical applications.
The meeting’s 700+ technical sessions also addressed topics in plastics circularity, innovations in process engineering, and sensors — as well as next-generation manufacturing concepts such as big data, process intensification, 3D printing, cybersecurity, and AI.
Panels, awards, and specialty conferences
Highlights extended to panel discussions, with experts reflecting on the future of sustainable food production, as well as how to move great ideas to the marketplace. In another panel, AIChE Fellows partnered with representatives from the Science History Institute to consider chemical engineering’s role in the energy transition.
Among other highlights was AIChE’s Honors Ceremony, featuring the presentation of the 2024 Institute and Board of Directors’ awards.
The San Diego meeting site also played host to four additional AIChE specialty conferences. These conferences were the 8th Bioengineering and Translational Medicine (BTM) Conference, the 6th Food Innovation and Engineering (FOODIE) Conference, the 9th Conference on Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA), and the 5th Cell Therapies and Immunotherapy Conference. Learn more about the Annual Meeting’s Co-located Conferences.
Major lectures, poster sessions, and networking events enhanced the meeting experience.
ASC highlights
Nearly 2,000 undergraduates from schools worldwide took part in AIChE’s Annual Student Conference (Oct. 25–28), with the next generation benefitting from career-skills workshops, scholastic contests, and networking opportunities.
Special events included a ChemE-Sports competition on the optimization and safety of a gas treating unit, the ChemE Jeopardy Competition, and the ChemE Cube Competition. Other highlights included a Recruitment Fair, the Chem-E-Car Competition®, and the Undergraduate Poster Session. Students also received career advice from early-career professionals and company leaders.
AIChE’s 26th Chem-E-Car Competition welcomed the finalists from the year’s regional contests. In the competition, sponsored by Chevron, students designed, built, and calibrated chemically powered miniature vehicles to travel a variable distance. The cars and their student operators must pass onsite safety inspections. The $2,000 first prize is funded by the H. Scott Fogler Endowment.
Annual highlights
Hal Alper, recipient of the 2023 Acrivos Award, delivered the Andreas Acrivos Professional Progress Award Lecture. Alper explained how metabolic engineering and synthetic biology are presenting new routes for sustainable bioproducts.
Ashish Kulkarni received AIChE’s Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence. In an associated lecture, Kulkarni described his work in immuno-oncology for early-stage detection of ovarian cancer.
In his William R. Schowalter Lecture, Robert A. Brown discussed how societal needs and advancing technology call for and enable greater interdisciplinary collaboration. Brown was congratulated by session moderator Pablo Debenedetti.
AIChE’s Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) marked its 20th anniversary. K. Dane Wittrup chatted with colleagues after presenting the James E. Bailey Award Lecture. Wittrup’s talk was devoted to the engineering of protein biopharmaceuticals.
The Meet the Faculty & Post-Doc Candidates session featured more than 380 poster presentations, with more than 200 presenters in the Industry Candidates session.
In his James Y. Oldshue Lecture, Juan Inga discussed sustainability efforts in existing chemical process facilities.
Panelists at the session “Chemical Engineering Reimagined: Bringing Sustainable Innovation to Market” included Susan Schofer (SOSV/HAX), Kendra Kuhl (Twelve), Patricia Bubner (Orbillion Bio), and Harold Schmitz (The March Group).
Forums and receptions organized by AIChE’s Women in Chemical Engineering Community, Minority Affairs Community, Early Career Community, LGBTQ+ and Allies Community, and other groups gave voice to AIChE members across the profession.
“The Future of Sustainable Food Production” was the subject of another “Chemical Engineering Reimagined” panel. Participants included David Kaplan (Tufts Univ.), Paul Shapiro (The Better Meat Co.), Penny Norquist (BioMADE), and Allison Lin (Mars, Inc.).
AIChE thanks the Annual Meeting’s sponsor organizations
Titanium sponsors
- Chevron
- ExxonMobil
- Purdue Univ.
- Univ. of California, San Diego
Platinum sponsors
- Dow
- Takeda
Gold sponsors
-
AVEVA
-
Chemstations
- Micromeritics
- TOSOH
- Wiley
Silver sponsors
- COMSOL
- Pfizer
- Rescale
- Shell
Bronze sponsors
- American Elements
- Merck
To stay on top of upcoming conferences, check out www.aiche.org/conferences to explore the variety of programming supported by AIChE and stay tuned here at AIChE's blog www.aiche.org/chenected.
This article originally appeared in the Institute News column in the January 2025 issue of CEP. Members have access online to complete issues, including a vast, searchable archive of back-issues found at www.aiche.org/cep.