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Opportunities and challenges for a Golden Age of chemical engineering

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Abstract

Chemical engineering is entering a new Golden Age of practice, thought, and impact, accompanied by great new opportunities and challenges. Five aspects mark this development: a new abundance of hydrocarbons; the evolution of biology into a molecular science; the ubiquity of powerful computational tools; the trend in manufacturing to be more process-oriented; and the systems approach that is part of ChE education from its first stages. There are important technical challenges, including technology creation and environmental impact, but just as important are new appreciation for and attention to challenges that require societal dialogues about complexity, uncertainty, and evolving and sometimes contradictory requirements. Crucial to all these impacts is enhancing the identity of what the profession is. That must be based on recognizing that the core of chemical engineering is applying molecular sciences to create value and advance the quality of life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695-7905, USA

    Phillip R. Westmoreland

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  1. Phillip R. Westmoreland
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Correspondence to Phillip R. Westmoreland.

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Phillip R.Westmoreland served as 2013 President of AIChE and is currently 2014 Past President. He is a professor at North Carolina State University in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

His chemical engineering degrees are from N.C. State (BS ’73), LSU (MS ’74), and MIT (PhD ’86). He was previously in the coal-conversion program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1974-1979, the faculty of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts

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Westmoreland, P.R. Opportunities and challenges for a Golden Age of chemical engineering. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 8, 1–7 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-014-1416-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-014-1416-z

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