might expect to find if they choose an industrial career. The suggestion for this program was made in response to the concern of chemical educators who were confronted with preparing their students for careers in the chemical industry, but who, themselves, possessed little or no industrial experience. In the spring of 1974 the "traveling road show" idea was discussed by members of the Younger Chemists Committee and a subcommittee was organized to begin work on the idea. T h e subcommittee prepared a data collection of present and past activities in this area to develop a better understanding of the problems facing younger chemists. Since 70-90% of all those receiving graduate degrees in chemistry will enter the chemical industry, an area in which the majority of these students are shockingly uninformed, a program to alleviate this ignorance is desperately needed. The shortage of jobs for chemists in the 1970's has helped to create an increasing need on the part of the chemistry students to seek assistance in their career planning. Upon completion of his or her degree the young chemist most make a choice to work as an industrial, governmental, or academic chemist. The career choice of the younger chemist is an individual one, but the student must be well informed in order to make the correct decision. Allan Cartter has cornoared the actual and . oroiected PhD's " awarded and the number needed for college and university teachine and found that bv 1985 there will be a neeative academic teaching need, i.e., academic lay-offs ( 4 ) . One outstanding industrial chemistry course was designed by Joseph Kennedy a t the University of Akron. He posed some pertinent questions to those in academia: "What are we doing for our clients? Are we really producing the product they want; or are we producing a young professional that we want or one we "think" they want?" In Dr. Kennedy's view "the contemporary chemistry professor's job is not only to provide education in the hard-core, scientific part of chemistry . . . programs, but also to instill appreciation and understanding for chemistry as a profession and a career." Those of us who have worked in industry can readily attest to the fact that frequently the chemical knowledge younger chemists possess is the least important aspect of their new job. Too often younger industrial chemists are overqualified in the theoretical aspects of chemistry, but lacking in other more essential areas. Two basic symposia formats have been developed by the Younger Chemists Committee to he given this year as model "traveling road shows." The two cluster university areas reoresentine dense student oooulations to be sampled are the sourheast Michigan area and the Research Triangle area in North Carolina. The proposed format to be used in Michigan in May consists of a two day program a t each of three institutions involving- a diverse grouo . of speakers and panel discussions. The main areas to be discussed include 1)
Research and Development in the Chemical Industry
2) Non-Research Carpers for Chemists 3) Industrial Employment in the Chemical Industry 4) Educating Chemists for Careers in Industry
The Research Triangle Area program (September 18-20) consists of three half-day programs centered around two (4 member) an el discussions among the panel members a n d the audience (students expressed a strong desire for aodience involvement). The first panel would be entitled, "The Transition from Academia to Industry" and would include a bench chemist, a senior research chemist or director, a managerial level (former?) chemist, and a retired chemist. The second would be "Obtaining Employment" and would consist of industrial recruiters and one current faculty member who was formerly employed in industry. The academic community must recognize the severity of this communication problem with industry and work 146 /
Journal of ChemicalEducation
toward its solution. The Younger Chemists Committee has developed three main areas to attack this problem: 1) The two day symposium in Michigan 2) The half-day concentrated program in North Carolina 3) A multi-media Droersm which will eventuallv evolve from these .
model symposia presentations
YCC is planning to present these symposia this year in an initial attemot to aid in brideine the communication eao. . The younge; Chemists Committee solicits and would aporeciate all feedback from the audience concernine our symposia approaches as well as input from. those interested in creating their own "traveling road shows." Literature Cited I11 B r o w . G.B.,Chern Tech. March. 1972. (21 Konnedy,d. P..Cham Tech. March. 1974. (3) C ond E N , 24. (May 20. 19741. 14) Carfier.A. M..Science, 172,132,119711. ( 5 ) Industrial Chemistry Program. Duke University, 1971. (6) C a n d E N . 26. (March 10. 19751.
Experience in Teaching "Concepts in Industrial Chemistry" G u y Mattson Florida Technological University Orlando, Florida 32816 In recent years there has been an increasing concern that there are serious shortcomings in the education of chemists in this country. Although the majority of the chemistry graduates are employed in industry, the typical curriculum does not adequately prepare these students for industrial careers. In an effort to improve our curriculum we have developed an industrial chemistry course a t Florida Technological University. This four-credit-hour lecture course, which is the subject of this talk, is normally taken in the senior year. The primary goal established for the course relates to the most frequently cited problem: the interface of theorv and oractice. Therefore. we do not attemot a comprehensive review of the chemical industry or a compilation of the hundreds of commerciallv industrial . imoortant . processes. Instead, we have elected to study a limited number of processes and products, hut to study them in some depth, and from a viewpoint which stresses the development effort which was involved. This is the case study method. We have developed a variety of such case studies, involving both process and product development; inorganic and organic chemistry; large volume commodities and low volume specialty chemicals. In each study, we have attempted to review the development from the standpoint of the chemist and, in particular, to illustrate how the concepts and tools acquired in academic courses are utilized in the development. An important part of each case study is consideration of what decisions were made during the course of the development, the data or facts upon which these decisions were based, and how the information was obtained. Such decisions frequently relate to engineering or economic considerations. Therefore, we have found it desirable to provide some background in these areas so that the student can review the development in a meaningful manner. Our course is divided into two oarts: Part I involves an introduction to selected engineering concepts and industrial oractices: Part I1 consists of the case studies. The topics which are covered in the lectures devoted to Part I include: Basic Considerations: introduction to the chemical industry and chemical process industries, stoichiometry, raw material costs, reaction thermodynamics, material and energy balances. Separation Processes: distillation, batch and continuous, charac-
teristics of columns, liquid-liquid extraction, absorption and adsorption, crystallization, filtration. Process Engineering: heat transfer, fluid dynamics, kinetics (batch and continuous), catalysis (homogeneous and heterogeneous), reactor design, pilot plant, function and operation, scaleup methods, process instrumentation and control. Business Practices: chemical process cost factors, economic evaluation, market development, technical support to the sales funetion. chemical natents. o n e important value that derives from this course is a clarification of the role of the chemist in a development effort and how i t relates to that of others. Our approach is designed to present a feeling and an understanding for the concepts and methods used in engineering. In this way, the student is hetter prepared to communicate with the engineer, and has a hetter understanding of what data and information the engineer needs to apply his talents to the development effort. Similarly the treatment of process economics introduces the student to such concepts as direct and indirect capital, fixed and variable costs, return on investment and cash flow; hut, what is more important, it gives him a hetter understanding of the function and philosophies of management. Part I1 of the course is an extensive review of the case study materials. We have developed and used seven case studies. T h e approach and format used in these case studies varies with the subject. In some, the style is narratiee with such devices as a memo from the plant manager defining the project to emphasize the role played by the chemist in the overall develo~ment:in others the style tends to emphasize the chemistry of the process. I n each of them, however, we have attempted to describe how chemists have utilized certain chemical principles or knowledge of chemical properties to develop a viable industrial process or product. The following is a listing of the case studies we have used in this course: "The Development of a Material far Use in the Partial Replacement of Zinc Dust in Zinc-rich Coatings" "The Manufacture and Use of Polyurethanes" "The Manufacture of Urea" "The Evaluation of a Crude Oil" "The Development of a Process for Manufacturing Chloromyeetin"" "The Development of a Process for Producing Styrene" "The Production of Phenol by the Cumene Process" The student response to these case studies has been very favorable. We helieve that they are effective in providing a transition from academic to industrial chemistry. The values of the case study approach are: 1) the student sees how commercial development efforts are based solidly upon the same chemistry he has learned in his course work, 2) he hetter understands the types of activities in which industrial chemists are engaged and, 3) he has a greater appreciation for economic factors.
Is Silver Chloride Still a Green Gas?: The Effect of Industrial Experience on a Chemist's Educational Philosophy P a u l D. Neumann a n d John R. Hallman Nashuille State Technical Institute Nashuille, Tennessee 37209 The co-authors of this paper have had a total of nearly 40 years experience in the chemical, nuclear, and aerospace
industry before embarking on their careers in education. This long experience with the working world has greatly influenced our attitude toward education. Through our contacts with several "generations" of chemists and chemical technicians, we have been able to formulate some ideas of what a chemist needs to know to survive in the industrial world and how effectively the different programs in chemical education have provided the desired background. Our conclusions are based not only on our own experience but are supported by our Advisory Committee on Chemical Technology, articles, editorials and letters in the professional literature and the tone of many recent joint symposia between representatives of industry and education. It is found too often that current programs in chemistry and chemical engineerina are too strongly oriented toward the theoretica~aspectsof the chemical sc-iences and woefully deficient in applied chemistry, laboratory . experi. ence and industrial pro&es. Descriptive chemistry, one of the major requirements for industrial chemistry, has become an educational orphan-hence the title of this paper, with apologies to Dr. Bernard S. Friedman, former President of ACS, and to Professor Derek Davenport of Purdue. Attempts to deal with the criticisms of the current curricula can be found in the numerous new programs now under development. Some are modifications of current programs, while others are completely new curricula aimed a t industrial and applied chemistry. The University of Texas a t San Antonio has restructured its undergraduate program in chemistry so that nearly all of the courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry are given in the first six semesters providing students the option to leave in two or three years. These semesters contain most of the technical and scientific background generally scattered throughout the regular 4-year program. St. Leo College, St. Leo, Florida also has an experimental program to educate industrial chemists which places some emphasis on industrial processes and career counseling. However, neither of these experimental programs appears to include any imaginative or innovative changes in content. On the other hand, the proposed 2 2 Industrial Chemistry program recently announced a t the University of Wyoming seems to he a radical departure from the current offerings in chemistry. They have revived the emphasis on laboratory skills and applied chemistry for the purpose of training chemists for industry. At Nashville State Technical Institute we also stress lahoratory training, descriptive chemistry and industrial processes. Chemical theory is used as a tool to explain chemical behavior, not as a major educational goal. The student is required to show more and more initiative and engage in more independent study as he progresses through the program. Twice as much time is devoted to lahoratory work here than is found in most chemistry programs today. Electives in Chemical Engineering Technology are recommended whenever possible. The obviously limited objectives of our two-year program in Chemical Technology certainly cannot fulfil the requirements of every chemistry student. Those whose goal is a graduate degree in chemistry must continue to examine the more abstract and theoretical aspects of chemistry. No less important to the continued strength of the chemical industry is a corps of chemists trained in industrial processes, laboratory skills and applied analysis Our educational system must offer hoth options in order to support hoth chemical research and the chemical industry.
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