American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Encyclopedia
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers
.
AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemist
s and mechanical engineers.
As of 2010, AIChE had over 40,000 members, including members from over 90 countries worldwide. Student chapters at various universities around the world have also been established throughout its history. The student chapters tend to focus on providing networking opportunities in both academia and in industry as well as increasing student involvement locally and nationally.
In 1905, The Chemical Engineer rounded out its first year of publication with an editorial by its founder and prominent engineer, Richard K. Meade, that propounded the question: "Why not the American Society of Chemical Engineers?" He went on to say: "The profession is now a recognized one and there are probably at least five hundred chemical engineers in this country".
The mechanical, civil, electrical, and mining engineers in the United States
each had already established a national society, so Meade's editorial was quite pertinent. But it took time for the idea to take root and Meade kept promoting it for the next two years. Finally, in 1907, he issued a call for a preliminary meeting to be held in Atlantic City in June, 1907. Some early leaders of the profession, Charles F. McKenna, William H. Walker
, William Miller Booth, Samuel P. Sadtler
and Thorn Smith along with about a dozen others answered Meade's call and met in Atlantic City on June 21, 1907. The meeting concluded with the formation of an organizing committee of six members: Charles F. McKenna (chairman), Richard K. Meade, William M. Booth, J.C. Olsen, William H. Walker, and Arthur D. Little
.
Shortly afterward, the organizing committee sent a letter in September 1908 to 600 men in the chemical profession in the United States and Canada asking for their opinions about forming a chemical engineering society. Two hundred replies were received and 70-80% were favorable. Many of the others believed the existing societies (especially the American Chemical Society
) were sufficient and they did not favor forming a new society.
After careful consideration, the organizing committee decided to hold a larger, open meeting at the Hotel Belmont in New York
at which those opposed to forming the new society could present their arguments and opinions. Accordingly, they invited fifty men prominent in the chemical profession (including men that opposed the forming of a new society) to meet on January 18, 1908. Twenty-one men attended the meeting and fourteen other expressed their views in letters. After much discussion, the meeting ended without reaching a definitive decision. However, it was agreed to have a mail vote (on whether or not to form a chemical engineering society) after a complete stenographic report of the meeting was printed and sent to the fifty men that had been invited to the meeting.
The mail vote resulted in 36 replies of which 22 were in the affirmative, 6 were negative, and 8 were neutral. Based on those voting results, the organizing committee of six called for a full-fledged organizational meeting to be held in Philadelphia on June 22, 1908. Meanwhile, the committee of six drafted a proposed constitution to be presented at that meeting. That meeting resulted in the official formation of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, adoption of a constitution and the election of Samuel P. Sadtler as the first president of the Institute. There were 40 charter members:
and sustainability
.
This is a list of the divisions and forums:
The prerequisite qualifications for election to any of the membership grades are available in the AIChE Bylaws.
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
.
AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
s and mechanical engineers.
As of 2010, AIChE had over 40,000 members, including members from over 90 countries worldwide. Student chapters at various universities around the world have also been established throughout its history. The student chapters tend to focus on providing networking opportunities in both academia and in industry as well as increasing student involvement locally and nationally.
History of formation
- This section consists of excerpts from a historical pamphlet written for the Silver Anniversary of the AICHE in 1932.
In 1905, The Chemical Engineer rounded out its first year of publication with an editorial by its founder and prominent engineer, Richard K. Meade, that propounded the question: "Why not the American Society of Chemical Engineers?" He went on to say: "The profession is now a recognized one and there are probably at least five hundred chemical engineers in this country".
The mechanical, civil, electrical, and mining engineers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
each had already established a national society, so Meade's editorial was quite pertinent. But it took time for the idea to take root and Meade kept promoting it for the next two years. Finally, in 1907, he issued a call for a preliminary meeting to be held in Atlantic City in June, 1907. Some early leaders of the profession, Charles F. McKenna, William H. Walker
William Hultz Walker
William Hultz Walker April 7, 1869 – July 9, 1934 was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and graduated in 1890 at Penn State College and took his Ph.D. at Göttingen . In 1894 he accepted the chair of industrial chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where from 1908 he was also director of...
, William Miller Booth, Samuel P. Sadtler
Samuel Philip Sadtler
Samuel Philip Sadtler, Ph.D., LL.D. was an American chemist, born at Pine Grove, Pa., the son of a Lutheran minister, and educated at Pennsylvania College , at Lehigh University , at Lawrence Scientific School , and in Europe at the University of Göttingen .In the United States, he was first a...
and Thorn Smith along with about a dozen others answered Meade's call and met in Atlantic City on June 21, 1907. The meeting concluded with the formation of an organizing committee of six members: Charles F. McKenna (chairman), Richard K. Meade, William M. Booth, J.C. Olsen, William H. Walker, and Arthur D. Little
Arthur Dehon Little
Arthur Dehon Little was an American chemist and chemical engineer. He founded the consulting company Arthur D. Little and was instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
.
Shortly afterward, the organizing committee sent a letter in September 1908 to 600 men in the chemical profession in the United States and Canada asking for their opinions about forming a chemical engineering society. Two hundred replies were received and 70-80% were favorable. Many of the others believed the existing societies (especially the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
) were sufficient and they did not favor forming a new society.
After careful consideration, the organizing committee decided to hold a larger, open meeting at the Hotel Belmont in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
at which those opposed to forming the new society could present their arguments and opinions. Accordingly, they invited fifty men prominent in the chemical profession (including men that opposed the forming of a new society) to meet on January 18, 1908. Twenty-one men attended the meeting and fourteen other expressed their views in letters. After much discussion, the meeting ended without reaching a definitive decision. However, it was agreed to have a mail vote (on whether or not to form a chemical engineering society) after a complete stenographic report of the meeting was printed and sent to the fifty men that had been invited to the meeting.
The mail vote resulted in 36 replies of which 22 were in the affirmative, 6 were negative, and 8 were neutral. Based on those voting results, the organizing committee of six called for a full-fledged organizational meeting to be held in Philadelphia on June 22, 1908. Meanwhile, the committee of six drafted a proposed constitution to be presented at that meeting. That meeting resulted in the official formation of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, adoption of a constitution and the election of Samuel P. Sadtler as the first president of the Institute. There were 40 charter members:
- Acheson, E.G.
- Adamson, G.P.
- Allen, L.E.
- Alexander, J.
- Barton, G.E.
- Bassett, W.H.
- Bement, A.
- Booth, W.M.
- Brown, H. F.
- Camp, J.M.
- Catlin, C.A.
- Dannerth, F.
- Dow, Allan W.
- Frerich, F.W.
- Grosvenor, W.M.
- Gudeman, E.
- Haanel, E.
- Heath, G. M.
- Hollick, H.
- Horn, D.W.
- Hunicke, H.A.
- Ingalls, W.R.
- Kaufman, H.M.
- Langmuir, A.C.
- Mason, W.P.
- McKenna, C.F.
- Meade, R.K.
- Miller, A.L.
- Olney, Lewis A.
- Olsen, J.C.
- Reese, C.L.
- Renaud, H.S.
- Reuter, Ludwig
- Robertson, A.
- Sadtler, S.P.
- Smith, Thorn
- Trautwein, A.P.
- Wesson, D.
- Whitfield, J.E.
- Weichmann, F.G.
Technical Divisions and Forums
Divisions and forums provide technical information, programming for AIChE’s technical meetings, and awards and recognition to outstanding chemical engineers in their area of expertise. They also provide opportunities for affiliation with top engineers in the general disciplines as well as in emerging fields like biotechnologyBiotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
and sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
.
This is a list of the divisions and forums:
- Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (CRE)
- Computational Molecular Science & Engineering Forum (CoMSEF)
- Computing & Systems Technology Division (CAST)
- Education Division (EDU)
- Environmental Division (ENV)
- Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division (FP&BE)
- Forest Products Division (FP)
- Fuels & Petrochemicals Division (F&P)
- Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD)
- Nanoscale Science Engineering Forum (NSEF)
- North American Mixing Forum (NAMF)
- Nuclear Engineering Division (NE)
- Particle Technology Forum (PTF)
- Process Development Division (PD)
- Safety & Health Division (S&H)
- Separations Division (SEP)
- Sustainable Engineering Forum (SEF)
- Transport and Energy Processes Division (TEP)
Membership grades
The AIChE has four grades of membership as listed below (ranging from the highest grade to the lowest grade):- Fellow
- Senior Member
- Member
- Student member
The prerequisite qualifications for election to any of the membership grades are available in the AIChE Bylaws.
Joint initiatives with industry, academia, and others
As new technology is developed, there is a need for experts to collaborate to achieve common goals. The AIChE plays a major role through joint initiatives with industry, academia, and others.- Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS): CCPS is a non-profit, corporate membership organization within AIChE that addresses process safety within the chemical, pharmaceutical, and petroleum industries. It is a technological alliance of manufacturers, government agencies, consultants, academia and insurers dedicated to improving industrial process safety. CCPS has developed over 100 publications relevant to process safety.
- Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS): DIERS was formed in 1976 by a group of 29 companies that developed methods for the design of emergency relief systems to handle runaway reactions. Currently, 232 companies participate in the DIERS Users Group to cooperatively implement, maintain and improve the DIERS methodology for the design of emergency relief systems including reactive systems.
- Design Institute for Physical Properties (DIPPR): DIPPR collects, correlates and critically evaluates thermophysicalThermodynamic databases for pure substancesThermodynamic databases contain information about thermodynamic properties for substances, the most important being enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy. Numerical values of these thermodynamic properties are collected as tables or are calculated from thermodynamic datafiles...
and environmental property data. If needed property values are not found in the literature, they may be measured in DIPPR projects and subsequently added to the DIPPR databases. DIPPR disseminates their information in publications, computer programs and databases on diskettes and online. - Safety and Chemical Engineering Education Program (SACHE) : The SAChE program, initiated in 1992, is an initiative between the CCPS and engineering universities to provide teaching materials about process safety for educating undergraduate and graduate students studying chemical and biochemical engineering. The materials can also be used for training in industrial settings. The SAChE leadership committee is composed of representatives from academia and industry as well as AIChE staff.
- Institute for Sustainability (IFS): The mission of IFS is assist professionals, academes, industries, and governmental entities contributing to the advancement of sustainability and sustainable development. The primary goal of the IFS is to promote the societal, economic, and environmental benefits of sustainable and green engineering.
Publications
- Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP): Monthly magazine providing technical and professional information.
- AIChE Journal: Peer-reviewed monthly journal covering groundbreaking research in chemical engineering and related fields.
- Process Safety Progress: Quarterly publication covering process safety issues.
- Environmental Progress: Quarterly publication covering environmental subjects and governmental environmental regulations.
- Biotechnology Progress: Peer-reviewed journal published every two months and covering peer-reviewed research reports and reviews in the bioprocessing, biomedical, and biomolecular fields.
See also
- Chemical engineerChemical engineerIn the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
- Chemical engineeringChemical engineeringChemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
- History of chemical engineeringHistory of chemical engineeringChemical engineering as a discipline is a little over one hundred years old. It grew out of mechanical engineering in the last part of the 19th century, because of a need for chemical processors. Before the Industrial Revolution , industrial chemicals were mainly produced through batch processing. ...
- List of chemical engineers
- List of chemical engineering societies
- Process design (chemical engineering)
- Chem-E-CarChem-e-carChem-E-Car is an annual college competition for students majoring in Chemical Engineering. In this competition, students must design small-scale automobiles that operate by chemical means, along with a poster describing their research...
External links
- Official Website of AIChE
- "About AIChE" (from Stevens Institute of Technology)