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Alumni News

Ton named Young Alumnus of the Year

Quy “Charlie” Ton is a 1995 B.S. graduate in chemical engineering and an inductee into the 2004 LSU Alumni Association’s Hall of Distinction. Ton was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year by the LSUAA and was honored at the annual Hall of Distinction ceremony, held on November 19, 2004, along with nine other inductees. As reported in our 2004 newsletter, Ton is the founder and owner of the Regal Nails salons (more than 700 nationwide) and Charlie’s Coffee Shops (4). He also owns six warehouses and a manufacturing plant. We congratulate Ton on his achievements thus far and wish him continued success in his entrepreneurial endeavors.

Robert Bujol, a 1943 B.S. recipient in chemical engineering, was presented a 2003 DEEDS Award at the summer 2004 luncheon meeting of the ExxonMobil Fleur De Lis Retirees Club of Baton Rouge, which was held on June 1, 2004. The DEEDS Award is presented by ExxonMobil to recognize those who have donated sufficient time to a charitable group to qualify that group for a donation from the ExxonMobil Volunteer Involvement Program. We wish a wholehearted congratulations to Bujol on receiving this philanthropic award and thank him for his tireless contributions to the community.

Claire Cagnolatti, a 1978 B.S. graduate, spoke at three seminars this spring: Global Ethylene Plant Performance Comparisons at AIChE’s 16th Annual Ethylene Producers Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, April 10-14, 2005; Session Seven: Update on Current Environment & Legislation Issues Within the Petrochemical Sector at the World Refining Association’s Global Petrochemicals Conference in Cologne, Germany, April 27-28, 2005; and, a paper on Worldwide Butadiene Plant Performance Analyses presented at BASF’s Butadiene Extraction Process Experience Exchange Meeting 2005 in Marseille, France, in May 2005.

Cagnolatti is currently the manager of Petrochemicals Operations for Solomon Associates in Dallas, Texas; she has been with Solomon Associates since 1994 and is responsible for all of Solomon’s global, multi-client comparative performance analyses for petrochemical plants in addition to various client-specific projects. Prior to joining Solomon’s she worked for 14 years in chemical and petrochemical operations for Occidental Chemical Company, Allied Corporation, and Stauffer Chemical Company. Upon receiving her B.S., she earned her M.B.A. from LSU in 1982.

John T. Shelton, who received his B.S. in chemical engineering from LSU in 1953, has been named an At-Large Representative for the 2005 LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors. He is the retired vice chairman, executive vice president, director, and chief operations officer of Texas Olefins Co. as well as its petrochemical subsidiary, Texas Petrochemicals Corp. In addition, he is the benefactor for the John and Rose Ann Shelton Gift Center, which is located in the Lod & Carole Cook Conference Center and Hotel, and a conference room in the Lod Cook Alumni Center. Shelton was named the LSUAA Alumnus of the Year in 1995. He has been a member of the LSUAA Board of Directors since 1991 and is a member of the Tiger Athletic Foundation Board of Directors as well. He resides in Houston with his wife.

The LSU Cuban Alumni Reunion was held September 10-12, 2004 on the LSU campus. Ten ChE Cuban alumni from the l960s and I 970s were in attendance and visited the department on September 10 where they were given a complimentary lunch and a tour of our facilities. Attendees are pictured, from left to right, Enrique Lopez-Aguiar (B.S. 1968, M.S. 1970), Martin Pinilla (B.S. 1967, M.S. 1975), Grady Smith—honorary Cuban (B.S. 1969, M.S. 1976), Alberto Rovira (B.S. 1964, M.S. 1966, Ph.D. 1981), Carlos Finalet (B.S. 1967), Armando Corripio—host (B.S. 1963, M.S. 1967, Ph.D. 1970), Juan Santa Coloma (B.S. 1964), Nemesio Viso (B.S. 1964, M.S. l97l), Enrique Levy(B.S. 1961), and Henry lnsua (B.S. 1961).

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Alumni Updates

If you would like for us to print news of your latest achievements, please send us an e-mail at gradcoor@lsu.edu, or sign our guestbook. We would love to hear from you!

Samuel C. Kahn (B.S., 1943) went to work for DuPont after the war and, over the next 40 years, worked in eight locations (counting Wilmington Headquarters three times). During the later years, he came interested in computers and eventually became a DuPont Fellos in Information Systems. After retiring in 1986, he was a consultant on Information Systems for several years. Then, he came a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and has worked with this great organization for the last 16 years. He married Eileen Desmond (LSU Dietetics, 1944) in 1945. Over the next wonderful 58 years, they raised six children. In 2002, Eileen died of pancreatic cancer.

J. Giralt “Keeno” Mestre (B.S., 1950) is enjoying retirement after 28 years with Texaco Chemical. He regularly attends sporting events of his five granddaughters, including swimming, softball, and horsemanship. He also enjoys fishing in Galveston and Rockport, Texas. He and his wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 25.

Paul Otto (B.S., 1955) is retired from DuPont and resides in Arkansas.

Marvin D. Roof (M.S., 1955) is retired from Ethyl Corp and is enjoying the “general” retirement agenda including: children, grandchildren, household projects, family activities, etc.

Joseph Wheeler, Jr. (Ph.D., 1959) retired from Shell in 1991. He is living in Houston with his wife, Pam. They have a country place in Ball, Louisiana, and spend a lot of time there with shrubs, flowers, and trees. His wife is from Bunkie, Louisiana, and they have friends and relatives there. They also have two daughters and a son who is an electrical engineer.

1960s

Joseph Bindo (B.S., 1965) is retired and living in Austin, Texas.

Charles R. Guerin (B.S., 1962) retired from Mobil Chemical in 1995 after a 30 year career that included both domestic and international management assignments. He started Guerin Business Development Corp to provide management assistance to small, local companies.

Donald Winkler (Ph.D., 1961) received his M.D. in 1968. He then served as an Army MD from 1968-74, including residency in Ophthalmology and began his practice in St. Augustine, Florida in 1975. He is still there, now semi-retired and continuing his hobby of research into SeaWater Conversion, which will soon be needed in Florida.

1970s

Madhusudan Nathany (M.S., 1973) is employed by Crescent Foundary, which is an ISO 9001:2000 manufacturer of cast iron and ductile iron castings as well as fabricated steel products and employees more than 500 people. It is located in India.

John A. Miller (Ph.D., 1970) is looking for employment while raising his youngest daughter (7).

Tim Pavelle (B.S., 1979) is a management consultant in the health sector in England.

Michael Ray Spivey (B.S., 1970) retired from Cytec Industries in May 2003. He is currently involved in an alternative certification program to teach high school math. He substitutes in area high schools and tutors in math. He enjoys fishing and his retirement.

Patrick Takahashi (Ph.D., 1971) is Director Emeritus and a retired professor of engineering at the University of Hawaii. In his latest endeavor, he addressed UNESCO of the United Nations in Paris to propose an international partnership for the Blue Revolution.

1980s

Connie Puls Fabre (B.S., 1986) became executive director for the Greater Baton Rouge Industrial Managers Association, Inc. (GBRIMA) in March 2004. Prior to joining GBRIMA, she worked for Exxon Chemicals in Cologne, Germany; the B.F. Goodrich Company in Plaquemine and Cleveland, Ohio; Monsanto Company in Luling, Louisiana; Focused Developments, LLC in Baton Rouge; and the Louisiana Chemical Association, which is also in Baton Rouge. She grew up in New Jersey and overseas, following her father’s career with Exxon. She came to Baton Rouge in 1976, moved away for several years while working as a chemical engineer, but then returned to adopt Louisiana as her home. She enjoys the outdoors, motorcycle riding, and spending time with her husband and family.

Mark LaCour (B.S., 1987) is a senior principal engineer for ConocoPhillips.

James Maness (B.S., 1984; M.S., 1987) is a business improvement manager at Georgia Pacific.

Ross J. Roussel (B.S., 1984) is a process engineer for IN VISTA, a subsidiary of Koch Industries (formerly DuPont Nylon). He is an avid tennis player and LSU football fan.

Anthony Swan (B.S., 1986) has been employed by Rubicon LLC since 1987, first at the Geismar plant. He is currently the site manager at the Huntsman Polyurethanes TPU Plant in Ringwood, Illinois.

Ron Usie (B.S., 1980) worked at Dow Chemical in Plaquemine from 1980-86 and has been working at Georgia-Pacific in Zachary since 1986.

1990s

Christopher Aarons (B.S., 1996) has worked as a process engineer for the past six years with Engelhard Corporation in Pasadena, Texas, polyolefin catalyst development and production. He has been the supervisor in the Semi-Commercial and Pilot Plant units since February of 2001. Mainly responsible for developing and implementing process changes as well as new product introduction following concept validation in his unit. He also does toll work for external customers. His other work is in optimization and cost reduction throughout the plant. He is married to his college sweetheart but no children. He is a licensed private pilot, a slight computer geek, a car enthusiast, and a volunteer with animal shelters.

Dennis Banks (B.S., 1993) is currently employed as a staff process engineer at Valero in Texas City, Texas.

Rocky Chen (B.S., 1994) is currently working for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality as an environmental engineer in the Water Quality Division. In 2003, he earned his accreditation as a certified massage therapist. Since 2000, he has been working with athletes at local health clubs and also at local, state, national, and international sporting events in the Oklahoma City area. He was selected as one of 60 international sports massage therapists to serve on the Athens Health Services Sports Massage Team 2004 where he provided sports massage to the athletes of the Athens 2004 Paralympics.

Catherine Gauthier Coats (B.S., 1995) joined Halliburton Energy Services immediately upon graduation and has celebrated her ninth anniversary with the Oilfield Services Division. She and her husband, R.J. Coats, have one daughter- Rose Marie (5). Catherine has obtained her Professional Engineering License in Petroleum Engineering and is currently working in New Orleans.

We would like to congratulate Michael G. Corripio (B.S., 1997) on being selected as Employee of the Year in the Technology Department of the Hovensa Refinary in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Corripio has been a chemical engineer at the refinery since 2000.

Mohammad Fahrurrozi (Ph.D., 1997) is a faculty member at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia.

Philip Hadaway, P.E. (B.S., 1995) is a senior process engineer with Shell International Exploration and Production. He works in the E&P Projects division in the New Orleans office.

Bianca McWilliams Jackson (B.S., 1996) works for Honeywell. She contributed to two plant start-ups at Honeywell from 2000- 03 while serving as production supervisor for those areas and was recently awarded an operations manager position. She is happily married with two children. She and her family are very active volunteering in the Gardere community near LSU.

Peter Kim (M.S., 1997) currently is a technical support engineer for Shell/CRI- Criterion Catalysts in Houston. He recently married and is enjoying the move back to Texas. He says to Nick, Clint, and Bijan, “Hope you guys are doing great wherever you are!”

Jada Lewis (B.S., 1997) is working as an environmental chemical specialist with the State of Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality.

Tommy Luong (M.S., 1996) is the planning and economics manager at Valero’s St. Charles Refinery in Norco, Louisiana. He has two children: Austin (5) and Emily (3).

Cory Moss (B.S., 1993) worked for Citgo Lake Charles Refinery for seven and a half years after graduation as a process engineer, refinery planner, and engineering supervisor. He changed companies to Valero Energy three years ago and is currently the operations complex manager at Valero’s Texas City Refinery. He has been happily married for 10 years with three kids: Braden (6), Collin (4), and Victoria (2).

Nishit Sahay (M.S., 1992) is a technology manager for ABB Lummus Global Inc in Houston. He received his M.B.A. from the University of Houston in 2001. He enjoys golf, cricket, travel, and music.

Todd Gage Winterton (B.S., 1997) is the project manager at the BST Biopharmaceutical facility for Monsanto Company in Kundl, Austria.

Stefan Vogt (B.S., 1996) is currently the Smelting Production Manager at Alcoa’s Pre-bake Aluminum Smelter in San Ciprian, Spain. He’s been living on Spain’s northwest coast in the province of Galicia with his wife, Tanya, for one and a half years. Prior to this, he was located at Alcoa’s smelter in Frederick, Maryland. Vogt states that he has many great memories of studying many hours at LSU. He gives lots of thanks to the professors (Corripio, Knopf, Dooley, Harrison, and especially Thibodeaux) for the inspiration they have given him.

2000s

Mark Browning (B.S., 2003) is currently working for United Parcel Service as the international coordinator for the Gulf South District. He does a lot of traveling in Louisiana and Mississippi. He says it is not exactly a chemical engineering job but an industrial engineering job. It goes to show that a chemical engineering graduate can do almost any type of engineering.

Melissa Dillon (B.S., 2000) currently works for Shell Chemical in control systems.

Cynthia Lim (B.S., 2003) works with the development group at Solvay Engineered Polymers in Mansfield, Texas. Her home is in Arlington, about a half hour away from Dallas. She loves the area and says the food and entertainment are great!

Elaine Lim (B.S., 2003) worked for Albemarle Corporation after graduation. She is now employed by Dupont-Dow Elastomers as run-plant engineer for the Chlorinated Polyethylene plant at Dow Chemicals in Plaquemine. Her husband will be graduating from LSU in Petroleum and Mechanical Engineering in the fall of 2004. They do not currently have any children and are planning to remain in Louisiana.

David McGraw (B.S., 2000) began working as a production engineer with ATOFJNA petrochemicals after graduation. His past experiences with ATOFINA include production and project support in two HDPE units and a Butyl Acrylate unit. In the spring of 2004, he moved into a senior engineering position. Currently, he has been focusing on production support, DCS/PLC programming, advanced process controls, and an M.B.A.

David Monett (B.S., 2003) is a senior process engineer for Rubicon, LLC in Geismar, Louisiana.

Aatish Patel (B.S., 2000) is now in his second year at LSU Medical School in New Orleans after working a few years as an engineer at URS Corporation. He says, “A chemical engineering degree can take you anywhere!”

Robin Price Toups (B.S., 2002) is currently attending law school at LSU.

Allison P. White (B.S., 2002) graduated Cum Laude from Georgia College and State University with a Master’s degree in business administration in the fall of 2004. Currently, she is working for the U.S. Air Force-Department of Defense in Warner Robins, Georgia as a process and facility engineer, which covers process engineering, project engineering, production support, and equipment repair/purchasing activities. Since graduating from LSU, she has had numerous opportunities to prove the worthiness of LSU’s programs.. .she sends a belated thanks to the LSU faculty! In other news, she took a group of 10 Cadette and Senior Girl Scouts to New York City over Memorial Day weekend and was interviewed by Good Morning America. White attended the New Year’s Day Capital One Bowl to cheer the Tigers on!

Grettel Zamora-Estrada (B.S., 2000) is working towards her Ph.D. in Cosmetic Science. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and loves traveling, dancing, and cigars.

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In Memoriam

We were saddened to learn of the passing of the following alumni. We extend our belated condolences to their families and friends.

lsadore Austin Allen (B.S., 1933)
Claude J. Baggett (MS., 1937)
Phillip Bertin, Jr. (B.S., 1934)
Reginald N. Blaize, Jr. (B.S., 1934)
Thomas Fulton Burke (B.S., 1972)
John Michael Chambers (B.S., 1935)
Allen Lawrence Chaney, Sr (B.S., 1937)
Ronald Lynn Clark (B.S., 1961)
Robert Edward Coffman (B.S., 1932)
Frank R. Cusimano (B.S., 1972)
Miles Edward Davidson (B.S., 1967)
Oscar Dewitt Duncan (B.S., 1952)
William Victor Dunne (B.S., 1938)
Harold Lee Finch (B.S., 1949)
George Oliver Hillard, Jr. (B.S., 1937)
Thomas W Howard (B.S., 1956)
James Elder Humphrey (B.S., 1936)
Jewel Ann Hymel (B.S., 1960)
Charles Lester Carville (B.S., 1942)
Bernie Joseph Lofaso, Jr. (B.S., 1980)
Ivan Lowry, Jr (MS., 1966)
William Dean Luker (B.S., 1941)
Ernest Elvin McCollough (B.S., 1924; MS., 1925)
Edmund Frank Metz (B.S., 1949)
John Augustus Moore (B.S., 1936)
John Preston Moore, Jr. (B.S., 1962)
Martha M. Mora (MS., 1957; Ph.D., 1962)
George Henry Nusloch II (B.S., 1948)
Fred Carl 0 Rourke, Jr. (B.S., 1947)
Emile Christian Rolfs, Jr. (B.S., 1929; MS., 1930)
Alvin Rolufs (B.S., 1936)
James M Shipp, Jr. (B.S., 1962)
Lawrence Lloyd Smith (B.S., 1939; MS., 1941)
Quentin Jared Thahan (B.S., 1944)
Marcel Joseph Voorhies, Jr. (B.S., 1938)
Edward Joseph Vorman, Jr. (B.S., 1948)
David C. Walsh, Jr. (B.S., 1939)
Durward Ogden Wilkes (B.S., 1932)
Charles Burton Williams (B.S., 1961)
Mark Allan Williard (MS., 1972)

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We Would Love to Hear from You!

Please Sign ChE Alumni Guestbook! or send us an e-mail at gradcoor@lsu.edu

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