Chemical Engineering Careers: Community Development Gaps

This talk will cover three topics that I view as gaps along Chemical Engineering career paths that need volunteer support, informational resources, and collaborative address. First: Focus on Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. The two professions are classically separate, but in the future have the potential to innovate with far and deep reaching impact. A few examples of how practitioners of holistic design that have an impact on our world will be shared. Second: I will focus on being more than a chemical engineer, a chemical engineer plus some if you will (i.e., ChE + S). In the past I have spoken to soft skill development but in this talk will illustrate how multidisciplinary has become a new norm with examples from my own experiences. One example for instance, is the institute has suggested that credentialing is important. While there is a push for Professional Engineering licensure, there are a myriad of accreditation processes that can aid ChEs on their career paths. Third: expectations for leadership and implementing change are different than they used to be. Instituting change requires standing against odds and making a difference on many scales and under adverse circumstances. Focus on this third topic will be given to the development of resources in education settings for chemical engineers.

This talk will demonstrate diversity among career paths that still require ChE community support. This talk is geared to promote collaborative discussion and action in progressive career development, please attend if you would like to support developing these topics within and for the Chemical Engineering community.