Presidential Blog: Making connections, celebrating excellence, and raising the profile of the profession

Presidential Blog: Making connections, celebrating excellence, and raising the profile of the profession

20th September 2024

The latest thoughts and updates from IChemE President Mark Apsey MBE.

In my August blog, I spoke about the importance of building relationships with fellow organisations and making connections that will help us achieve our mission of engineering a sustainable world. Over the past month, many of the activities that I’ve engaged in will help fulfill these aims and have certainly given us the opportunity to emphasise the importance of chemical engineering in moving forward the energy transition and other global challenges.

On 10 September, IChemE hosted a joint event with the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee (P&SC), discussing the question ‘In the next Parliament and beyond, how can engineers contribute to achieving a more sustainable world?’  This was a fantastic forum for us to highlight many of the key areas in our recently published report ‘Engineering a Sustainable World: the Chemical Engineering Challenge’, and work closely with parliamentarians to explore solutions to some of the report’s biggest questions.

The event was well attended, including contributions from Chris McDonald MP, a Fellow of IChemE and the first Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering to hold a parliamentary seat, myself, and Nick Starkey, head of the National Engineering Policy Centre. It was a huge pleasure to represent the Institution on such an important stage – and host the first P&SC meeting of the new Parliament. Thank you to the speakers and hosts, as well as to the IChemE team for organising the event, I am sure the words ‘chemical ‘engineering’ have never been uttered quite so many times before in a parliamentary setting.

Sticking to government matters, I was delighted to speak recently with Professor Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Central to our conversation were the UK’s prospects for industrial decarbonisation, including a discussion on how IChemE and its members can share with the government our support and expertise. More on this developing relationship to come!

Away from parliament, progress on ways to bring the next generation into chemical engineering continue to move forward apace. This includes our continuing work with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), including the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding looking at ways in which we can collaborate to encourage more young people globally to consider STEM professions. A key component of this agreement is working together to provide free online resources to teachers and other influencers worldwide to encourage young people to explore careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Our own new virtual work experience platform, aimed at students aged 14 to 18, launches on 30 September, and is also focused on building our future talent pool, providing young people with yet another avenue by which to explore chemical or process engineering careers.

My recent trip to Lancaster University for the opening of its impressive new engineering facility gave me much hope for the future of the profession. It was a great honour to be invited along for a tour and to see the chemical engineering lab with an impressive range of facilities and equipment. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the ‘living lab’ campus that allows students to study and experiment with the energy demands of the university to improve efficiency and sustainability.

As I close, I’d just like to remind you about some upcoming events. Firstly, IChemE’s refreshed Andrew Fellowship, a 12-month award that supports research in the field of heterogenous catalysis, is now open for applications from early-career professionals. Award recipients will have salary costs covered, as well as research-related expenses of up to £15,000, so it’s definitely worth applying.

The finalists have also been announced for the 2024 IChemE Global Awards, which will take place in Manchester, UK on 28 November. I’d like to congratulate all the individuals and companies who are in the running for a prize. Best of luck, and I will see you all at the awards ceremony very soon. I hope you can join us too. Seats will go on sale to non-finalists in the coming weeks.

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Image credit: Parliamentary & Scientific Committee APPG

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