STS AICHE 2024 Elections

The STS AIChE nominating committee approved the nominees for the following officer elections:

• STS AIChE Chair-Elect

  • Hady Abdulhady

  • Kirtan Trivedi

• STS AIChE Secretary

  • Joseph Hernandez

• Position 2

  • Jacinta Conrad

• Position 4

  • Dale Embry

Chair-Elect - Hady Abdulhady

About

Hady Abdulhady serves as the Head of Business Development and Sales at thyssenkrupp Uhde – North America. He boasts more than 16 years of expertise in Hydrogen/Syngas and Ammonia, Methanol, Gasification and Green technologies. Throughout his career, Hady has assumed diverse roles encompassing project management, application engineering, and business development.

Hady's leadership has been pivotal in launching initiatives that introduce carbon sequestration applications to the global Oil & Gas and chemical sectors. His contributions extend to the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies, a feat achieved both in different regions globally.

Hady received 2023 Global Leader of Influence from World Affair of Greater Houston as a recognition for his international impact, exceptional leadership, and outstanding contributions to Houston’s international spirit.

Hady's academic journey includes a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Al-Baath University and an Executive MBA in Renewable Energy from the University of Oklahoma.

Vision Statement

To foster innovation, community engagement, and professional growth within the AIChE community. The focus will be on harnessing collective expertise, integrating emerging technologies and establishing partnerships across academia, industry, and government organizations.

Program Pillars

1. Membership Growth and Engagement

   1. Develop tailored programs and workshops to attract new members, particularly students and young professionals.

2. Technical Excellence and Career Development

   1. Diversify speakers in monthly meetings by featuring industry leaders and researchers and encourage networking with them.

3. Sustainability and Renewable Energy

   1. Introduce a sub-committee focused on renewable energy and sustainable practices.

   2. More emphasis on low carbon technologies, including Green and Blue Hydrogen and Ammonia topics.

4. Community Outreach and Partnerships

   1. Increase interactions and contribution to the communities and educational institutes.

5. Transparency and Governance

   1. Implement an open-door policy for members to communicate directly with the chair and other executive members.

Chair-Elect - Kirtan Trivedi

About

Dr. Kirtan Trivedi has more than 40 years of experience. He is a fellow of AIChE. He has B.E. from M. S. University of Baroda, India, M. Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, PhD. University of Adelaide, Australia all in Chemical Engineering. He did Post-Doctoral research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is a registered Professional Engineer (CA). He has worked for Brown & Root Braun and Parsons before joining ExxonMobil 25 years ago. His expertise is in Process Integration and Energy Efficiency, Project Planning, Design and Development, and Process Simulation. He has worked in technologies related to Refining, Ethylene, Renewable fuels, e-fuels, and various low carbon processes.

He has been a member of AIChE since 1987. He volunteers in organizing and chairing sessions for the AIChE Spring National Meeting since 1998, local SPTC meeting since 2016 and was the Chairman of PIRC at University of Manchester. He had held various leadership roles in the AIChE F&PD, including Director. Currently he is a member of the AIChE Executive Board of the Programming Committee (EBPC). He was the Meeting Programming Chair (MPC) for the 2020 AIChE Spring Meeting and led the successful transition of the meeting from face-to-face to virtual format.

Vision

Lots of changes are occurring in the chemical industry today. This leads to challenges and opportunities that we as Chemical Engineers and members of AIChE will be solving. Energy transition, climate change and sustainability are the key area that needs to be addressed. This will need lot of innovation in terms of technology development as well as adaptation of technologies from other areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, use of enzymes, bioprocessing etc. This requires that all STS members will need to learn and keep abreast of new developments. I plan to engage technical experts for the chapter meetings to ensure that the members are informed of the latest developments.

Mission

As the Chair, I will drive the following priorities:

• Develop an executable plan to meet the STS AIChE Chapter’s strategic objectives – increase membership, participation, explore other avenues for improved communications.
• Reduce meeting cost and ensure they are held in a central location or rotate the meeting location so that members from all regions can maximize in-person participation.
• Increase fund raising via sponsorships for high profile activities such as awards.
• Ensure the member’s professional development needs are met.
• Improve the participation of younger professionals and student members so that they can have extensive networking opportunities and can meet mentors from industry.

I am humbled to be nominated as the Chair and will appreciate your vote. Please contact me with your thoughts and suggestions at kirtanktrivedi@gmail.com.

Secretary - Joseph Hernandez

Employment

Mr. Joseph A. Hernandez, P.E., is a Process Engineer at Burns & McDonnell (BMcD) with 5 years of experience in the Oil, Gas, and Chemicals (OGC) EPC industry. He has consulted on midstream, downstream, chemicals, and renewable engineering projects, and is driven to design safe, sustainable, and impactful projects for his clients. Joseph has also recruited engineers at college career fairs, presented to AIChE student chapters, and developed internal training modules for entry-level process engineers.

Education

Joseph earned his BS (2017) and MS (2018) in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station with minors in Business Administration and Chemistry.

AIChE Involvement

Joseph has been an AIChE Member since 2017. Most notably, Joseph has spent the last 4 years scribing Executive Committee meeting minutes as Secretary for AIChE-STS. He has strong relationships with the current Executive Committee and has helped with transitioning officers. He presented at an AIChE conference in 2019 and has published two papers in AIChE’s Chemical Engineering Process (CEP) journal, which were Cultivate a Fertile Network (Nov. 2019 Issue) and Gen Z Join the Team (May 2020 Issue).

Leadership

• 2020-Present: Secretary for AIChE-STS Local Section

• 2018-Present: BMcD Houston OGC Giveback Committee Chair for 200+ employee owners

• 2017-2018: Teaching Assistant for Thermodynamics, Fluid Ops, Controls, & Unit Ops (10-100 students per class)

• 2014-2017: Resident Advisor for Texas A&M University and hundreds of student residents

Community Service

Joseph enjoys giving back to others. He has coordinated and executed 18 volunteer events for Burns & McDonnell totaling over 600 manhours. He has fundraised for non-profits, such as Junior Achievement and Kids’ Meals, Inc., and has dedicated over 650 volunteer hours in his personal life.

Secretary Goals

• Encourage, diversify, and grow active participation in AIChE-STS
• Strengthen relationships and connections between AIChE-STS members
• Increase marketing and communication of AIChE-STS events via meetings, emails, and social media
• Increase opportunities for professional development and education of AIChE-STS members
• Collaborate with other professional societies (e.g., SPE, ASME, etc.) on networking and events
• Continue maintaining AIChE-STS files electronically
• Continue accurately recording discussions, motions, and votes
• Continue representing AIChE-STS to the best of my ability

Position 2 - Jacinta Conrad

About

Dr. Jacinta Conrad is the Frank M. Tiller Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston (UH), where she has been a faculty member since 2010. She studies transport and dynamics within soft, complex materials and matrices. Using a range of microscopy, rheology, scattering, and computational methods, her group seeks to understand how microscale particles, including colloids, nanoparticles, bacteria, viruses, and proteins, explore and/or transport through confined and crowded environments. Insights gained from fundamental studies of these non-equilibrium processes inform the design of new materials for preventing fouling and corrosion, for remediating environmental damage, and for sensitively diagnosing disease. She earned an SB in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and MA and PhD degrees in Physics from Harvard. She worked as a postdoctoral associate in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois before starting her independent career at UH. She is a member of the AIChE Fluids Programming Committee (Area 1J) and served as their Meeting Programming Chair in 2019. Currently, she serves on the AIChE Awards committee (2022 – 2024) and is also active in service through the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and Society of Rheology.

Position 4 - Dale Embry

Bio

Dale L. Embry, P.E., has been an active member of STS AIChE for more than eighteen years and an active member of AIChE for over forty years. He is a Principal Engineer at ConocoPhillips with expertise in Process Engineering and Thermodynamics. Dale has received two STS AIChE awards. In 2021 he received the Distinguished Service Award and was a co-recipient of the South Texas Section – AIChE Gary Award for past and continued efforts on the PE Review Course for Chemical Engineering. Additionally he has served STS AIChE as the CAST workshop chair, Position 4 of the Executive Committee, and as a member of the Tellers committee.

Position Statement

Position 4 is responsible for planning activities to increase member participation and retention, and recruits new members. In that role I will meet with members to learn about what activities and programs that are of the most interest and will help get them more engaged with the STS community. STS has a very diverse membership and I expect that there will be a broad range of needs. I look forward to getting more engaged with the other members and potentially growing new networking events.

Election Link (closes 11:59PM CDT November 25)

https://forms.office.com/r/5WHLi72UaE