Professional societies are very important in advancing knowledge, standards, peer networks and more. Within our world of manufacturing and automation there are several including the International Society of Automation (ISA) and the Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) to name but two. There are also numerous engineering societies around the globe focusing on many of the engineering disciplines including chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, etc.
I mention this because many engineers involved in process manufacturing, instrumentation and automation are chemical engineers. The professional society for them is AIChE. Although the acronym is based on the words, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, it has grown into a global association of chemical engineers. Many of the experts we feature here on the blog are chemical engineers belonging to AIChE.
One of these experts, Emerson’s Tim Olsen, is on the ballot for the 2017 AIChE Board of Directors election. Ballots were mailed out this week to AIChE members and the election commences on August 28.
I don’t know the other folks running for the board of directors’ positions, but I do know Tim, and want to put in a shameless plug for him. I did review the election guidelines and saw that campaigning on social media was permitted. It wasn’t clear whether friends could help or not, but I’ll assume so.
You’ll find much of Tim’s expertise in refining challenges, trends and solutions in many posts we’ve done over the years.
If you’re an AIChE member who plans to vote, here’s the page with the full slate of candidates for the 2017 election. And here’s the part about Tim on that page:
Tim Olsen is an AIChE Fellow and has 27 years’ experience in the refining industry, of which 19 years have been with Emerson Automation Solutions. He is a refining consultant within Emerson’s global refining industry solutions group, where he supports the company’s technical and business strategy. Prior to Emerson, Tim was with UOP for eight years as a technical advisor on refinery startups.
Tim is a past chair of AIChE’s Fuels and Petrochemicals Div., and was the overall Meeting Program Chair (MPC) for the 2014 AIChE Spring Meeting in New Orleans. He is currently a member of AIChE’s Chemical Engineering Technology Operating Council (CTOC), the Center for Energy Initiatives, the Fuels and Petrochemicals Div., the Upstream Engineering and Flow Assurance Forum, and the South Texas Section. He is active with programming at the AIChE Spring, Annual, and Southwest Process Technology conferences.
Tim received the Fuels and Petrochemicals Div. Distinguished Service Award (2015) and the George Lappin Program Comm. Service Award (2017). He obtained a BS in chemical engineering from Iowa State Univ. and an MBA from the Univ. of Iowa.
Statement:
Early in the 2000s, I started presenting and chairing sessions for the Fuels and Petrochemicals Div., which eventually led to more leadership roles including Chair of the Fuels and Petrochemicals Div. and overall Division Programming Chair. One of the key initiatives I was proud to be part of was the inception of AIChE divisions participating with the Young Professional (YP) Comm.; the Fuels and Petrochemicals Div. was the first and only division to participate in the YP mixer back in 2010. Since the inception, other divisions and forums have reached out to YPs to welcome their involvement.If elected to the AIChE Board of Directors, I will continue to encourage and guide young professionals and students to be active in AIChE. The AIChE community is a great place to receive mentorship and sound advice for career and community development, and to generate long lasting friendships. In addition, I will continue to promote collaboration between industry and academia. As an example, I was recently able to provide industry insight at the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago by presenting a talk for Dr. Caracotsios’ senior-level process control class. I will encourage other industry members to pursue similar actions related to mentoring.
I will also encourage passive AIChE members to become more active, since there are many ways to stay connected through AIChE — in-person and virtually. I will utilize my extensive experience with AIChE and passion for the organization to solicit and act upon your input for how AIChE can better serve your needs. I welcome your comments and questions about AIChE at [email protected].
Much success with the election Tim and thanks for all your contributions over the years in advancing the cause of this professional engineering society and your work to make the refining industry safer, more reliable and more efficient.
