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DAVE C. SWALM SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING E-NEWSLETTER

Volume 2, Number 5

May/June, 2003

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FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD…

Well, summer time is certainly here, and as a matter of fact, it is almost gone already! The back-to-school sales signs are already up in Walmart and Old Navy (I guess you can tell where we shop), which means that summer vacation is about over.

Part of the Schulz Family summer tradition is to go to Holden Beach, North Carolina with all of the relatives from my wife’s side of the family. This is the 16^th year we have gone to the same beach area, and is a “highlight” of the year for all of us. We started going when we first got married, and regardless of where we have lived (North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Mississippi), we have always found a way to either fly or drive to the beach. Holden Beach is just a stones throw away from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which means that it is also time for me to dust off the golf clubs and tee it off with my brother-in-laws, father-in-law, wife, and most importantly, my two sons.

With that being said, I have two brief golfing stories to share about both of my boys….

Boys Golf Story #1: On vacation, when the adults went off to “play golf”, my youngest son begged to go along. After a few lessons from a golf pro, we took my youngest son with us last year when he was 7. He decided to play all 18 holes with us, and after hitting in his last putt, threw up his arms and shouted “I got a 158!” He was very excited, and in addition to our family, the golfers starting on the first hole could hear him. One gentleman couldn’t tee up his golf ball because he was laughing at our son’s excitement about his score.

Boys Golf Story #2: One of the more memorable parenting memories is when one of your children first beats you at something. With my 12-year old, I regularly lose in video games and chess, but thought I could hold my own in golf. As ESPN Football Analyst Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast my friend!”. This summer, he finally did it … he beat his dad on 18 holes. I would like to claim that I had a bad game (which I did), and that he was a bit lucky. Actually, I was the lucky one because he 3 putted most holes and could have beaten me easily by 20 strokes if he had played a little better! Ever the true sportsman, my son told me that “Don’t worry Dad, you will do better next time!”.

With the Fall Football season coming up, don’t forget to stop by one of the Tailgate Tents and visit with faculty, staff, students, and alumni. This will be the third year we have done this, and the number of people coming gets bigger every year.

Well, we have redone our WebPages again, and will continue to add items over the next couple of weeks in order to get ready for the fall semester.

Please keep those alumni updates coming! Also, please continue to surf our WWW site occasionally to see pictures of what is happening at MSU.

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

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DR. MARK BRICKA GRANTED TENURE

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Bricka, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, was granted tenure by the IHL effective on July 1, 2003. Dr. Mark Bricka joined the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering as an Associate Professor in January of 2001. Dr. Bricka came to MSU from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi. During his time at Waterways, Dr. Bricka served as an Engineering Technician, a Chemical Engineer, and finally as a Research Environmental Engineer. Since his arrival at MSU, Dr. Bricka has served as a PI or Co-PI on nearly $750,000 of externally sponsored research focused in environmental engineering. Dr. Bricka serves as the Co-Director of the Environmental Technology Laboratory housed within the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering. He is the author of over 80 technical reports, journal articles, and conference proceedings publications. Dr. Bricka was selected to receive the inaugural Award for Excellence in Promoting Undergraduate Research as selected by Omega Chi Epsilon last fall. Dr. Bricka received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama, his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State, and his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Bricka is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Mississippi.

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FIRST PAPER NEWSLETTER MAILED THIS SUMMER

All alumni should have received a paper copy of the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering newsletter. We did have many returned because of incomplete addresses, so if you did not receive one in the mail, it may be because we did not have your correct mailing address. If you would like a copy but did not get one in the mail, send me an email note and we will mail one to you this summer. Additionally, a PDF version of the newsletter is available on the School website under the alumni section.

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2003 FALL SEMESTER PLANT DESIGN AWARDS

During the last couple of years, the faculty member teaching Plant Design has selected a student group to receive an award for the best final written report and best final oral report. Tom Austin (Class of 1974) provided financial support to establish permanent plaques for the main office, a small cash award, and small plaques for each student winning one of the awards. These awards are given at the graduating senior reception held on the Friday afternoon prior to graduation, and were presented by Dr. Priscilla Hill, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. The Plant Design Award for Best Written Report was presented to Tony Brown, Wesley Sasser, and Aaron Williams for their project entitled, “Feasibility Study: Production of Gold at the Moapa Mine”. The Plant Design Award for the Best Oral Report was presented to Levell Hairston and John Roberts for their report entitled, “A Feasibility Study of Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration from a 500 MW Power Plant”.

Congratulations to Tony, Wesley, Aaron, Levell and John on a job well done!

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DR. ATLY JEFCOAT NAMED 2003 PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR

Dr. Atly Jefcoat, Hunter Henry Professor of Chemical Engineering, was selected by this year’s graduating class to receive the 2003 Professor of the Year Award. Dr. Jefcoat was presented with a plaque at the Chemical Engineering graduating senior reception held prior to graduation and will have his name inscribed on the permanent plaque that is hung in the main office. This was the second time in three years that Dr. Jefcoat was selected for this honor by the students.

Our hats off to Atly on being named 2003 Professor of the Year!

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FOOTBALL TAILGATING DATES AVAILABLE

Make sure to mark your calendar to attend one of our Chemical Engineering fall tailgate tents. Several sponsors have already signed up, so make sure and let us know immediately if you would like to sponsor one of the three remaining games. If you sponsor one of these games, we ask your company to send some “give-aways” and to have some representatives at the tailgate to visit with students, parents, and alumni. Games will be assigned on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

August 30 - Oregon - OPEN

September 27 - LSU - Albemarle Chemical Company

October 4 - Vanderbilt - Eka Chemical Company

October 11 - Memphis - OPEN

November 8 - Alabama - Kerr McGee Chemical Company

November 27 - Ole Miss - OPEN

The tailgate tents will start serving food 3 hours prior to kick-off, and will shut down approximately 1 hour prior to kick-off. As in previous years, we will have the Chemical Engineering Alumni Ambassadors at the tailgate tent to give building tours and to keep you up-to-date on ChE at Mississippi State.

If you or your company would like to sponsor a tailgate tent, please send an email note to Ms. Sherre Denson (sherre@che.msstate.edu <mailto:sherre@che.msstate.edu>) letting us know which game you would like to sponsor.

Go Dawgs!

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