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DAVE C. SWALM SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING E-NEWSLETTER

Volume 4, Number 2

November 2004 - January 2005

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Greetings from Mississippi State! The Christmas Visa bill has been paid and Mardi Gras has passed, so that means it is time for Kirk Schulz=s regular quarterly e-newsletter, but Dr. Schulz has been promoted to the Dean of the MSU Bagley College of Engineering. This is great for MSU. We in ChE hated to see Dr. Schulz leave, but as Dean, he will be doing good things for all of us who are associated with Engineering at MSU. I should point out that this is the first time ever that MSU has had a chemical engineer as Dean.

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A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFO

Mississippi State Chemical Engineering has had a profound impact on my life. I like to tell everyone that if it were not for the education that I received at State, I would probably be working at the shipyard at Pascagoula. Not that there is anything wrong with working at the shipyard, its just that was the only thing for a young man to do back when I graduated from high school on the coast in the early sixties. After my graduation from State in 1966, I spent 15 years in industry before I returning in 1981. Things worked out well for me as all three of my daughters and all of my sons-in-law graduated from State. I hope to live long enough to see some of my five grandchildren receive their diplomas from State. (The more the better!) This past 24 years has been dedicated to trying to help students find their own success. I know that I haven=t always done a perfect job, but I can sleep well at night knowing that I do try. We have nine other faculty members here that are just as interested in our students as I am.

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THE SEARCH IS ON….

Currently, the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering is conducting a nation-wide search for a new Director. Until a permanent replacement has been found, I will be filling in as Interim Director. That means that I have made a full circle in MSU ChE. I started out as a freshman at State exactly 42 years ago. I have been on the faculty for the past 24 years and I am now Director, albeit temporary. I have had the job for two months now and Kirk hasn=t fired me, so I guess that means I am doing O.K. Actually, I could not do it without the full and generous support of our students, staff, and faculty members.

Speaking of faculty, we are also conducting a search for the Hunter Henry Chair Professor position. If you haven=t heard, Dr. Atly Jefcoat is going to retire this summer. He too will be missed. Dr. Jefcoat has done a tremendous job with our advising efforts and with pointing our undergraduate program in the right direction. He has also guided our award winning AIChE chapter as faculty advisor for the past several years and served as a mentor to our younger faculty members.

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AIChE NEWS

The AIChE fall meeting was a great experience for faculty and for students. A number of the faculty presented papers and several students presented posters at the meeting. MSU has really moved to the forefront in participation at the AIChE national meetings. Many of the students are going to submit abstracts for paper presentations at the New Orleans Student Conference this Spring. We congratulate Kellie Smith who placed second in the Student Poster competition. The group of students organizing the Student Conference to be held in Starkville in 2006 did a good job networking for speakers and sponsors for the 2006 event.

The 2006 regional conference can attract up to 500 attendees, so this represents a great opportunity for MSU to showcase the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering to other schools in the South. There will be plenty of opportunities for alumni to assist in putting on the regional conference, and we will provide updates in future newsletters.

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RECRUITING

We are beginning a new student recruitment campaign and if any of you have contacts with local high schools in your area and would like a chemical engineering professor for a visit and presentation, please drop me an e-mail. We have several professors who are willing to travel if they can speak to groups of potential chemical engineers.

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WHAT YOU'RE UP TO…

We'd like to continue featuring updates on alumni in our newsletter. Please drop me an email with a short bio or update on your activities and we'll feature you in upcoming newsletters.

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