Institute News: August 2020

Introducing Some of AIChE’s New Fellows

The rank of Fellow is AIChE’s highest grade of membership, and is achieved only through election by the Board of Directors. Candidates for AIChE Fellow are nominated by their peers, and must have significant chemical engineering experience (generally 25 years), have demonstrated significant service to the profession, and have been a member of AIChE for at least 10 years. Here are some of the recently elected Fellows. More Fellows will be introduced in future issues of CEP.

Surita R. Bhatia is a professor of chemistry, affiliate professor of materials science and chemical engineering, and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Stony Brook Univ. She began her career at the Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst before accepting a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook. She has a strong interest in engineering education and diversity. Within AIChE, she has led the Women in Chemical Engineering Committee, chaired programming in interfacial phenomena, and served as a student chapter advisor. She earned her BS at the Univ. of Delaware and her PhD at Princeton Univ., both in chemical engineering.

John B. Hillenbrand, Jr., is Vice President of PET Engineering and Development for Graham Packaging (Lancaster, PA), where he is responsible for developing and commercializing industry-leading, sustainable packaging solutions. He began his career at DuPont, where he held a variety of positions in global innovation, corporate venturing, product management, technology, and operations before taking on senior leadership roles in innovation, research, and design at Owens Corning and Armstrong. Within AIChE, he has programmed management conferences and served in the Materials Engineering and Sciences Div. (MESD). He earned his PhD in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon Univ.

James A. Klein is a senior consultant at ABSG Consulting, Inc., with 40 years’ experience in process safety, engineering, and research. Prior to joining ABSG, he served as process safety management co-lead for North America operations at DuPont. He is the co-author of Process Safety: Key Concepts and Practical Approaches, and he has more than 50 publications and conference presentations to his credit. Among his AIChE programming contributions, he is co-chair of the Center for Chemical Process Safety’s (CCPS) conferences for 2020 and 2021. He has also contributed to several CCPS books and to the Design Institute for Physical Properties’ (DIPPR) Handbook of Polymer Solution Thermodynamics.

Christi Patton Luks is a teaching professor and Associate Department Chair of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology. Her leadership roles within AIChE have included chairing the Societal Impact Operating Council (SIOC) and the Women in Chemical Engineering Committee. She has also participated in many activities of AIChE’s Education Div., Global Societal Impact Committee, and Student Chapters Committee. She is a director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and is president of Omega Chi Epsilon, the chemical engineering honor society. She earned her PhD in chemical engineering at the Univ. of Tulsa.

R. Russell Rhinehart is professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Oklahoma...