Letter from the Chairman
Dear Alumni and Friends,
 The new Chemical Engineering
facility still remains a high priority for the department. Planning
money from the State of Louisiana is already being put to use
on the project, and the appointed architectural firm is drawing
up the plans. We are considering two building options: either
an annex to our existing facility or a facility near CEBA. The
benefit of the former is that it would provide maximum space.
The latter, however, has been the primary focus because of its
consistency with the campus master plan of a focused engineering
complex.
In other news, we are happy to announce that we have
hired three new faculty members who will join us in Fall 2002.
Dr. Ben McCoy comes to us from the University of California, Davis,
and will fill the first Gordon A. and Mary Cain Endowed Chair.
Ben's background is in applied mathematics. Dr. Judy Wornat, our
new Associate and Robert Hughes Harvey Professor, comes to us
from Princeton University with a specialty in analysis of combustion
products. Dr. Jerry Spivey, our new Associate and James McLaurin
Shrivers Professor comes to us from North Carolina State University
with a focus in applied catalysis. These new hires will be highlighted
in our Fall newsletter. In addition to new faculty, Dan Mowry,
a retiree of ExxonMobil, has also joined us in the Undergraduate
Lab as New Undergraduate Lab Manager and Teaching Associate. Mowry's
knowledge of process control systems has proved greatly useful
to our undergraduate students.
The Alumni Advisory Committee will hold its second
meeting in early August to continue the work of helping the Department
define educational objectives and assessment tools to evaluate
those objectives. We are also planning to hold a reunion for all
our alumni and their families on October 12, 2002, from 11 am
to 2 pm. The reunion will take place between Tiger Stadium and
the Gordon A. and Mary Cain Department of Chemical Engineering
on South Stadium Drive. We plan to have jambalaya, beer, and other
beverages. Alumni will have the chance to visit with other ChE
graduates and the ChE faculty, while seeing the many important
additions to our facilities. We will be mailing RSVP forms, so
please let us know if you plan to attend. You can also let us
know if you plan to attend by completing the RSVP form on our
website (http://www.che.lsu.edu/alumni/reunion.html).
We believe that all our efforts toward improvements
and modernizations will ensure that our program, on both undergraduate
and graduate levels, meets the needs of local industry and produce
graduates of the highest caliber. As always, if you have any questions
or comments regarding our program and the direction in which we're
headed, please do not hesitate to stop by the department. The
faculty and I would be most interested in speaking with you.
Sincerely,
F. Carl Knopf
Robert D. and Adele Anding Professor and
Gordon A. and Mary Cain Department of Chemical Engineering Chair
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