AIChE Announces New Officers, Board

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) announced that Christine S. Grant, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the inaugural associate dean of faculty advancement in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, will become president of AIChE in 2022.

Grant succeeds current president Deborah Grubbe, owner and president of Operations and Safety Solutions LLC. Billy B. Bardin, global digitalization director at the Dow Chemical Co., will become 2022 president-elect and will succeed Grant as AIChE president in 2023.

Additionally, MaryKathryn Lee, retired senior chemical engineering at ExxonMobil Corporate Strategic Research, will begin a three-year term as secretary in 2022. As secretary, Lee succeeds Joseph D. Smith, professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology and chief technology officer at Elevated Analytics LLC.

Newly elected members of the AIChE Board of Directors are: James R. Beilstein, vice president of advanced manufacturing at Owens Corning; Paulette Clancy, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University; Anne O’Neal, manager of process safety culture and competency at Chevron; and Daryl Roberts, chief operations and engineering officer at DuPont. The directors serve three-year terms.

Within North Carolina State’s College of Engineering, Grant is responsible for faculty development, promotion, and tenure. Her research focuses on surface and interfacial phenomena in the areas of electronic materials, polymers, and biomedical systems. She has also developed a green chemical engineering curriculum.

Grant has been recognized for broadening the participation, promotion, and retention of underrepresented minorities and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions. Her recent honors include the William W. Grimes Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from AIChE’s Minority Affairs Committee; the Dr. Joseph N. Cannon Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers; and the Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network’s Bevlee A. Watford Inclusive Excellence Award.

Grant has been a visiting senior scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a grant expert and program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has also been a principal investigator on multiple NSF ADVANCE grants and served on the advisory boards of several ADVANCE universities. In this role, she promoted institutional transformation in STEM fields.

Grant co-edited the book, “Success Strategies from Women in STEM: A Portable Mentor,” and contributed chapters to the recent books, “Growing Diverse STEM Communities: Methodologies, Impact and Evidence” and “Overcoming Barriers for Women of Color in STEM Fields.”

A Fellow and life member of AIChE, Grant has been a member of AIChE’s Board of Directors, the chemical technology operating council, the environmental division, the awards committee, the nominating committee, and the Henry and Melinda Brown Endowment Steering Committee. She’s has also chaired AIChE’s Minority Affairs Committee.

Grant is also a life member of the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. She earned her Sc.B. from Brown University and her M.S. and Ph.D. at the Georgia Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering.

AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 members in more than 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities, and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security.