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DAVE C. SWALM SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING E-NEWSLETTER

 

Volume 1, Number 6

 

July/August, 2002

 

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FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD...

 

Football fever is in the air in Starkville!  You can always tell when school will start back up when you start to see all of the articles in the paper about football in Mississippi.  My family has always been college football fans, and this year we are going to get a full dose.  I am going to Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech - Temple football game, we have our tickets for the Egg Bowl in Oxford, and are expecting some exciting SEC home games.  It will be very interesting to see what effect the "ban" on cowbells has at the MSU football games.  My guess is that we will still hear quite a few of real cowbells during the games.  I wouldn't want to be the first referee who calls a penalty for cowbell ringing during an SEC game!

 

I have been back in town for the last few weekends, so some of the "house" projects have risen on the priority list.  The first one was to repair our fence.  Like many people, I am torn between hiring someone to do it, and doing it myself.  At the beginning of the job, I always think, "I can do this and save lots of money".  About midway through the project, I am frantically looking for the phone book deciding that maybe I didn't really need to replace the fence myself.  Once I am done, I normally decide that next time, I am going to hire a professional.  The most striking aspects of these projects is that I still think I am 22 when doing these home projects.  After working on the fence most of the day, I decided to sit down after dinner for a few minutes while watching a movie.  Somehow, I managed to "miss" about 45 minutes of the movie, and was accused by my wife of snoring in the middle of the movie.  For some reason, I wasn't able to pop out of bed the next morning due t!

o sore muscles.  Of course, all of this is happening as my 12-year-old son is laughing at his dad wanting to go to bed at 9:00....  Somehow, I remember doing this myself several years ago!

 

I would like to express my appreciation to David Purvis and Shell for donating 60 hardhats to be used by MSU chemical engineering students in the Unit Operations Laboratory courses this next academic year.  This donation is another example of the outstanding corporate support that we enjoy in the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.

 

This past summer, we completely redid our web pages.  They have a new look, and it should be easier to navigate around our web site.  If you haven't done so already recently, I would invite you to check out the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering WWW page (<http://www.che.msstate.edu/>). We are constantly updating the School WWW pages, so be sure and check back once every couple of weeks to see new pictures and stories.  I would especially direct you to visit the alumni page (<http://www.che.msstate.edu/alumni/alumni_news/alumni_news.htm>). Past issues of the Electronic newsletter will be posted to this site following distribution to the electronic email list. 

 

I would also encourage you to send in Alumni Updates.  I will put them in the newsletter (at the end) so that your former classmates can see what you are doing.  If you would like to contribute an update, just send it to me (schulz@che.msstate.edu <mailto:schulz@che.msstate.edu>). 

 

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the newsletter.   Go Dawgs!

 

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SCHOOL ANNUAL REPORT AVAILABLE

 

The Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering published its first annual report summarizing the accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students during the past year.  While the full report (<http://www.che.msstate.edu/welcome/annual_report/annual_report.htm>) gives you many details about departmental productivity and support, I would like to share a few highlights with you.

 

The School graduated 51 B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering (15 in December and 36 in May), which ranks us in the top 25 undergraduate degree producers in the U.S.  These students went to 12 different companies, of which Dow Chemical hired the single largest number of undergraduates from this particular class.  Additionally, MSU Chemical Engineering students continue to be in demand for graduate studies, with students pursuing graduate degrees at Auburn, Clemson, MIT, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, and Colorado. 

 

The School graduated 1 M.S. student this past year.  We continue to have strong enrollment in the graduate program, with 30 students currently enrolled in the M.S. program, and 7 students enrolled in the doctoral program.   As part of the School strategic plan, we will be increasing enrollment in the doctoral program over the next couple of years in an attempt to balance our M.S./Ph.D. enrollments.  In order to showcase our research facilities and expertise, the School initiated a seminar exchange program with several regional universities this past year, and hopes to expand our seminar program for the upcoming year.

 

Faculty members in the School continue to be very productive in scholarship.  This past year, faculty published 13 peer reviewed journal publications, 6 peer reviewed conference proceedings publications, and 5 other technical publications.  Research expenditures continue to grow, and were near $2M for this past year, which is outstanding for a department of our size. 

 

The School has a significant number of both corporate and alumni supporters, and our support from the private sector continues to help us maintain excellence.  We received $35,750 in undesignated corporate support from Chevron, Chevron Oronite, Dow, and ExxonMobil.  We also received a large gift from Eastman Chemicals as partial funding for the Deavenport Chair.  Additionally, 13 alumni contributed to the Chemical Engineering Advancement Fund, up from 9 a year ago. 

 

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HOME FOOTBALL GAME TAILGATING SCHEDULE

 

Once again this year, the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering will be hosting a tailgating tent at all home football games.  Because the times on the games tend to change some depending on TV and other factors, we will have each tent starting 3 hours prior to kick-off, and will shut down the tent about 1-hour prior to kick-off.  Students will be on hand to give building tours, and to talk about some of the new things happening in the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.  Even if you can only stop by for a few minutes, drop by, have a hamburger, and visit with some of your fellow ChE alumni. 

 

This year, Albemarle Chemical and Mississippi Chemical are sponsoring our tailgating tent for the Auburn and Kentucky games respectively.  We would love to have your company sponsor the tailgating tent for any of the games.  If you would like some more information on this, please send me an email note (schulz@che.msstate.edu).

 

Our home game schedule will be as follows:

                       

                       

September 14

Jacksonville State

3:00 to 5:00 tailgate

September 19

Auburn (sponsored by Albemarle)

3:45 to 5:45 tailgate

 

October 12

Troy State

10:30 to 12:30 tailgate

November 2

Kentucky (sponsored by Mississippi Chemical)

TBA tailgate

November 16

Tennessee

TBA tailgate

November 23

Arkansas

TBA tailgate

 

                                         

 

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ALUMNI CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHEMICAL ENGINEERING INCREASE

 

I am pleased that our annual alumni contributions to the Chemical Engineering Advancement Fund increased from $3,700 in 2000 - 2001 to $5,300 in 2001 - 2002.  More significantly, we had 13 alumni contribute this past year compared with 9 a year ago.  I would like to see this number increase to over 20 alumni for the next year.  If you would like to make a gift to the School, please remember to designate your gift during the annual fund drive to the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, or send your contribution directly to:  Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, Box 9595, Mississippi State, MS 39762.  Alumni funds are used to assist with student travel, undergraduate research and design projects, and other priority needs within the School.

 

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MSU REPRESENTED AT 2002 ASEE SUMMER SCHOOL

 

The Swalm School of Chemical Engineering was well represented at the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer School.  The Summer School is a unique program that only exists within the chemical engineering education community, and is only held every 5 years.  At the summer school, new faculty members have the opportunity to interact for a week with senior faculty members and to discuss ways to more effectively teach cutting edge material.  All chemical engineering departments in the U.S. are invited to send one faculty member to this meeting, with 70 or 80 universities actually represented at the meeting.  The 2002 Summer School was held on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder.  All of the MSU delegation stayed in dorms on the CU campus, which had no air conditioning, with temperatures in the mid-90's.  We really didn't expect Mississippi Weather in the Rocky Mountains! 

 

The cost of the meeting is picked up by the National Science Foundation and various chemical companies.  Tom Austin, MSU Alumnus and a member of the Chemical Engineering Advisory Committee, provided significant financial support for the 2002 Summer School on behalf of the Dow Chemical Company.  Dow was acknowledged as a primary sponsor at the meeting, which was great publicity for Dow and MSU. 

 

Attendees from Mississippi State included:  Mark Bricka, Associate Professor; Rafael Hernandez, Ph.D. Candidate and Instructor; Priscilla Hill, Assistant Professor; Kirk Schulz, Department Head; and Katherine Taconi, Ph.D. Candidate.  

 

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ALUMNI UPDATES

 

I have enjoyed receiving these periodic updates on the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and am impressed with the constantly updated website.  As far as my update... I recently graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson, receiving my M.D.  I plan to continue my training for the next 3 years in Jackson at UMC as a Resident in Internal Medicine.  I graduated w/ my B.S. in ChemE in Dec. '97.

 

Thanks,

 

Ricky Johnston

Richard L. Johnston, M.D.

University of Mississippi Medical Center

rickyj7@bellsouth.net <mailto:rickyj7@bellsouth.net>

5832 Kristen Drive

Jackson, MS 39211

(601) 206-8033 - home

(601) 573-0472 - cell

 

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