IChemE appoints new Chairmen in Australia and Malaysia

Professor Max Lu and Professor Wan Ramli Wan Daud are the new respective Chairmen of IChemE’s Australian and Malaysian boards.

Both assumed their new roles on 1 January 2009, with Lu replacing Professor Russell Scott at the helm in Australia, and Wan Ramli succeeding Ahmad Nordeen Salleh in Malaysia.

Lu is Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research Linkages at Australia’s University of Queensland, and Chair of Nanotechnology in the University’s chemical engineering department. He is also a Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Functional Nanomaterials at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

Wan Ramli is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Founding Director of the University’s Fuel Cell Institute. Both are Fellows of IChemE.

Lu anticipates a busy year as Chairman: “I will work with the IChemE staff in Australia to provide quality services to members, particularly through activities at the state division level. I’ll be working to further enhance industry-academia engagement and collaboration; support IChemE’s increasingly international focus; continue the IChemE roadmap projects on energy and water; and work with Engineers Australia to initiate ‘Chemical Engineering – The Australian History and Perspective’, a publication on the history and developments of chemical engineering in Australia, intended for publication in 2010.”

Noel Williams, President of Dow Chemical South East Asia ANZ, is the new Australia Board Deputy Chairman in Australia and will succeed Lu in 2010.