“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
—John Dewey,an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer.
Daniel Lepek on “In the (Fume) Hood”
In 2015, he received the Ray W. Fahien Award from the Chemical Engineering Division of the American Society of Engineering Education for his teaching excellence and contributions to engineering pedagogy. Four years earlier he earned an Engineering Education Mentoring Grant from the same division to develop innovations in engineering education and pedagogy…
Dan served as Chair of the Education Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a role he saw as a long-term commitment in order to have a meaningful impact on chemical engineering education and increase diversity in the field.
– From The Cooper Union’s In Memorial: Professor Daniel Lepek
Letter from ChED Chair (2022-2023), David Silverstein
Dear ASEE Chemical Engineering Division members,
I am saddened to share with you news of the passing of one of our members, Dr. Daniel H. Lepek of Cooper Union. Daniel began his time as a faculty member in 2009 and immediately began to engage with this community both through ASEE and through AIChE. He brought a sense of humor, an appreciation of food at an entirely different level than I had personally experienced previously, and a passion for his students that inspired many of his colleagues at Cooper and worldwide.
Classes are winding down (if not already done)…the air is warming up…and that can only mean one thing: summer has arrived! I hope all of you had a successful academic year and are looking forward to some much deserved down time before the 2023-2024 academic year kicks into high gear.
Summer is also a season of transition. As we prepare for the upcoming annual conference in Baltimore, we look forward to the transition of officers, thanking those who have spent many hours in the background facilitating the continual forward movement of the Chemical Engineering Division.
While ASEE continues to work through some challenges, we continue to build upon our current successes to usher in new ideas and innovation within the Chemical Engineering classrooms and laboratories. We also look forward to celebrating the achievements of several individuals through our division awards. Many of you have done exceptional jobs in various facets within the teaching realm. Those we highlight during our celebration have, and continue to do, superior work in Chemical Engineering education. Let us look forward to learning from them as well as the rest of our colleagues. We will always be continual learners of the field. Let us come with an open mind to embrace new knowledge that we can carry back to our respective institutions.
This year’s conference theme is “The Harbor of Engineering Education”. Let us, as the Chemical Engineering community, be a shining example of serving as a harbor for continual education and growth of the next generation of chemical engineers. I look forward to seeing many of you next month in Baltimore!
I hope this finds you well. As your Newsletter Editor, part of me feels that by writing this month’s “letter from…” I’m breaking some sort of fourth wall. Hopefully this doesn’t ruin the magic!
Our highlight this month is the Call for Nominations for division positions – see the first announcement below! Whether you’re a long-time member of our division or just joining, the executive committee is a great opportunity to work with an amazing group of leaders in the Chemical Engineering Education community.
As Newsletter editor I have had the privilege of working closely with our chairs, past chairs, and web directors in particular throughout the years. Each has led with a clear mission to serve our community, and support our members in any way we can.
I know we all have a lot on our respective plates and taking on additional service roles can sometimes be daunting. For what it is worth, there is no group I know that is more supportive, more gracious, or more understanding to work with. The first time I ran for an elected position a few years ago, I lost, but running gave me the opportunity to articulate my relationship with the division and further increase my presence in the community. The next time around, I won a seat of Director – a position I especially recommend for anyone seeking to get involved but unsure where to begin! I am truly honored to be a part of this team, and I want to share a little bit about what the division means to me. This is both my thank you letter to the division, and my argument for getting involved.
I first started engaging with members of the division as a graduate student. Upon discovering the discipline of engineering education, I began sneaking away from my labmates at AIChE and heading over to see the sessions in the Education Division. I sat in the back, taking furious notes in amazement at all the cool things happening in education that I was unaware of. I soon realized this is where I wanted to be, and kept showing up.
I started dabbling in engineering education work, and presenting first at AIChE (since I was there already) and then ASEE ChED. I’ll be the first to admit I had a lot to learn, and I will never forget how readily I was welcomed into the ChED community. Every person I approached gave me their time, and seemed genuinely excited to speak with me. I received both validation and constructive feedback from this community when presenting my work. This support gave me the courage to pivot from my technical research in genetic engineering to pursue a career as an engineering education scholar. I could not be happier that I took that leap.
To our long-time members, thank you for creating such a strong and positive culture. To our new(er) members, welcome to the community – this is a great one to be a part of. To all, please consider standing for election!
Submit nominations by Friday, April 14th via email to Past Chair Tony Butterfield and Newsletter Editor Elif Miskioğlu.
Nominate yourself or a colleague for the following 2023-24 positions:
Chair-Elect (then serves as Chair in 2024-25)
Director (2-year term)
Secretary/Treasurer (1-year off-cycle term, current incumbent willing to remain)
Have a question on a position? Feel free to reach out! All terms begin after the annual conference in June.
ASEE 2023 Conference Updates
Final Draft Revision deadline extended
Draft Revision deadline is now April 14th at 11:59 PM!
ChED Banquet tickets available!
Tickets are now available for purchase for ticketed conference events. If you have registered for the conference (and are logged into the site), you can purchase tickets to the CHED Banquet on the NEMO.
Unit Ops Tour at Johns Hopkins (free, ticketed event) tickets available!
ChED will also be coordinating a tour of the Johns Hopkins Unit Ops lab for anyone who is interested and can provide their own transportation. This will be a free event, but it does require a ticket. You can get a ticket after registration for the conference and as an event on NEMO.
Call for Volunteers: AIChE Education Division Elections Committee
The Education Division of AIChE needs a volunteer to serve on our elections committee.
We will be holding elections in Summer/Fall 2023 for 4 positions:
Secretary/Treasurer
2nd Vice-Chair
Director 1
Director 2
The committee will likely meet 2-3 times between now and the conclusion of elections on October 1, 2023. If you are willing to volunteer for this role, please reach out to the Division Past Chair Ben Davis. Thank you!
Greetings from the ASEE Chemical Engineering Division!
As the winter turns into spring for most of us, it brings up visions of things many of us look forward to: Spring Break, mowing lawns, warm weather walks, and registering for the ASEE Annual Meeting! As you guide your classes through midterm, please start making your plans to join us in Baltimore for the meeting June 25-28. We also have our banquet planned for June 27 for what I am confident will be an evening of camaraderie for all who join us. Registration for the meeting is currently open and tickets for the banquet will be on sale soon.
When you think ASEE these days you probably think about how your colleagues at ASEE meetings have impacted your teaching methods, or how ASEE contributes to your students’ success in its administration of fellowship programs and scholarship programs. You might also be wondering about the financial state of the Society.
In February, ASEE held a Town Hall meeting at which they updated attendees on the current financial state of ASEE. The attendees were primarily volunteer leadership. Here are my takeaways from the meeting:
ASEE started the current crisis with a $5.7 million shortfall. Including reimbursements from the 2022 Conference. It was discovered that in addition to the current year shortfall, long-term reserves were depleted nearly to zero.
All but one reimbursement has now been made, and payment plans are in place for other external debts. $2.1 million has been paid off. $1.6 million owed externally. Staff levels have been significantly reduced and other cost-saving measures are in place.
$1.1 million is owed internally to Divisions and other entities. Those funds were co-mingled with operating funds. Funds received by Divisions and other internal entities since October 1 have been tracked, held in an account separate from Operating Funds, and are available as needed. Old funds will be paid back as soon as feasible, but that will likely be longer than one year from now.
Funds collected after October 1 are available (including ticket sales and external sponsorships). All planned events or other commitments must be revenue neutral. Awards, travel stipends, other expenditures follow the same guidelines.
Dues paid to entities are being tracked but are not to be distributed until sometime in the future.
Ticket sales will be tracked and be immediately available.
The root cause of the difficulty is being investigated through an external audit. Results will be shared once available.
In short, we are able to continue with our work in planning and executing our conference program. Additionally, we can now accept your tax-deductible gift to assist in Division operations, such as mentorship grants and complementary banquet registration for award winners. For the time being, all award honoraria and reimbursements are suspended with the intent of a retroactive award at a future time, with the key exception of externally sponsored awards that will be presented as we have previously committed. We are continuing to seek sponsors to enable us to fully recognize awardees at this year’s meeting, but with or without these funds we will celebrate the winners and their achievements at the June meeting and banquet.
In the meantime, take particular note of the opportunity to nominate yourself or a colleague for service in the Division as an officer (see below)!
Thank you for the opportunity to serve in this role and more importantly to be able to learn from so many of you through our connections both in-person and virtually. It is a privilege to be a member of this Division with each of you.
*Reminder to 2022 attendees, you should have an email with a (one-time use) registration coupon code for $50 off for yourself, and a second code to share
Call for Potential Panelists/Speakers at ASEE – AI/ChatGPT
With the rise of ChatGPT, the impact of AI is an increasingly present thought for many of us. We’re hoping to facilitate a discussion on the topic at ASEE and are looking for potential paneslits/speakers. If you have expertise on how AI/ChatGPT can be used to ask and answer ChE questions, or know someone who does, we’d love to hear from you! Email Conference Chair Janie Brennan and Current ChED Chair David Silverstein.
Announcements from the ASEE Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion!
Share your DEI news: Send us relevant DEI news, activities, and best practices to share on Twitter by emailing boerches@lafayette.edu and LinkedIn by emailing bbose@lbl.gov
Call for Volunteers: CACHE teacher resource center
The CACHE trustees need Chemical Engineering faculty volunteers to help maintain / update webpages for their teaching resource center.
Call for Participation: Survey on Process Safety across the curriculum
Did you wonder why the capstone design survey last fall had so few questions about safety? We held those back for an off-cycle survey on process safety across the curriculum! Please have someone familiar with the process safety offerings in your department complete the Education Division’s Survey Committee’s survey. Please contact the committee chair with questions: Laura Ford.
Committee Members:
Chris Barr, Janie Brennan, Tracy Carter, Kevin Dahm, Hunter Flodman, Luke Landherr, David Silverstein, Stephen Thiel, Bruce Vaughen, Troy Vogel
Call for Participation: AIChE Annual Meeting
The Education Division is trying a new approach for abstract submission this year. Instead of predetermining our sessions for abstract submission, we are asking that you submit to a theme, and the program chairs will sort the abstracts into sessions based on what you choose to submit. No matter what you want to share, it should fit into one of our bins – just find the one that you think most appropriate. Based on your feedback in the programming meeting in Phoenix and our experience with what is usually submitted, the following themes are now available in Confex:
Scholarship of teaching and learning
Teaching professional skills
Core ChE curriculum courses
Elective ChE Courses
Computing/data/numerical methods in the ChE curriculum
Laboratory, hands-on, or experiential learning
Social justice and societal impact in the ChE classroom
Sustainability and global impact in the ChE classroom
Teaching process safety
Assessment methods
Student support and advising
Faculty professional development
Instructional methods and teaching tips
If presenting a poster is your preference, you may still submit an abstract on any chemical engineering education topic directly to the EdDiv poster session.
Call for Nominations: AIChE Education Division Awards!
Please consider nominating a colleague for an AIChE Education Division (EdDiv) Award! The nomination deadline is June 1, 2023.
Hello all! I hope everyone is having a great fall semester that seems to be flying by fast.
Please find our fall 2022 newsletter below:
Link to Fall 2022 Newsletter
We look forward to seeing those of you that attend the AICHE Education Division sessions in November. We hope everyone has great upcoming holiday seasons.
