Events Calendar

AIChE Socal Dinner Meeting @ Khoury's

Ins & Outs and Ups & Downs: A Perspective on the Past 35 Years of Chemical Engineering, and the Next.

Roger Sowell will speak on a few of his career experiences during his 35 years in the chemical engineering arena, from process plant assistant process engineer to world-wide oil refining consultant and running his own consultancy. The chemical engineering discipline has undergone several ups and downs since 1975, and he will discuss a few keys to understanding what drives chemical engineering employment. He will also discuss the future in light of recent innovations in emerging areas such as bio-chemical engineering, nanotechnology, and sustainability. The importance of government regulations and policies will be discussed.

Included will be:
- The boom times of the late 1970s
- The bust of the mid-1980s
- Mid-life crises - over 40 and jobless, now what?
- Foreign competition for jobs, and manufacturing
- The future in light of current policies and innovations

Roger E. Sowell is an attorney with a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His law practice emphasizes the legal aspects of engineering, including professional liability, intellectual property, licensing, process safety and liability, products liability, environmental, construction and other contract issues. Prior to law school, he worked world-wide for 25 years in refining, petrochemicals, and industrial chemicals. His process experience also includes chlor-alkali and chlorinated hydrocarbons such as ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride, and PVC. In the petroleum industry, he worked in refining and ethylene plants. He worked for a software modeling and process control company with a focus on optimizing refineries. He then opened his own consulting firm where he performed feasibility studies for grass-roots refineries and ethylene plants, and developed optimization algorithms for cleaning schedules of heat exchangers in complex networks. He is a member of the California bar, and admitted to the United States District Court for the Central District of California.


*We will be meeting in front of RTH at 3:45pm to carpool to the restaurant. See details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126166614103606&index=1

Location: Long Beach

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: USC American Institute of Chemical Engineers