A Message from
Dr. Khaled A. M.
Gasem.
Welcome to the School of
Chemical Engineering at
Oklahoma State University
After 11 years of dedicated
service, Professor Russell
Rhinehart has decided to return
to full-time teaching and
research. Under his leadership,
the School of Chemical
Engineering has continued its
tradition of excellence in the
undergraduate program, and its
growth
in key areas of research,
particularly in bioengineering,
materials,
and energy.
Now that I have been accorded
the privilege of serving as the
School Head, I face two
questions. How do we sustain
this level of success? Also, how
do we respond to changes in the
educational experience and the
demands of this era?
I believe the School of Chemical
Engineering will undergo
significant transformations in
the next ten years. These
will be the result of inevitable
changes in demographics, medium
of instruction, curriculum
content and methodologies, and
the composition of the faculty
and their expertise. I
also believe that in managing
these changes, we need to
preserve what we value and
develop what we deem useful for
our future aspirations. In this
regard, I value our
undergraduate program and feel
strongly about continuing our
fundamentally-framed,
practice-oriented program.
Equally, I am committed to
growing the graduate studies and
multiplying our successes in
world-class research.
Our continued commitment to
quality classroom instruction on
relevant topics, active
mentoring of the students in all
aspects of the profession, and
our high expectations of our
students will surely sustain
excellence in our program. This
being the case, we need to
maintain our balance of faculty
expertise and experience through
careful recruitment and
mentoring efforts of outstanding
faculty, who value
practice-oriented engineering
education and world-class
research in areas of impact. We
also need to address inevitable
changes in chemical engineering
education. We are experiencing
rapid changes in:
-
Medium of instruction;
moving to computers and
information-based learning
and process development
-
Constitutive modeling;
handling more biological
systems and specialty
materials
-
Level of analysis;
emphasizing the molecular
perspective
-
Global perspective;
adjusting to the demands of
an integrated world
community
Advancing our curriculum in
these areas while maintaining
our excellence in the core
competency areas will be a
challenge we are excited to
undertake.
Our current research activities
in several areas are both
significant and world-class in
caliber. We need to
sustain and grow these
activities through effective
collaboration. Research happens
at the interface of different
disciplines; as such,
collaborative research is a
necessity. Over the past
15 years, as a School, we have
sought actively to enhance our
biochemical and materials
research. Our investment
has been well placed, and more
is needed to reinforce our
gains. We require more
coordination, more significant
team projects, and more
competitive graduate
fellowships.
I believe collaborative research
with industry can be a key
component of our research
program. We plan to seek
actively such relations and make
the case for the mutual benefits
of such efforts. Our colleagues
in industry know that economic
success in value-added
manufacturing and processing
requires a “technical advantage”
that could only be realized by
sound science and engineering.
Moreover, sustaining gains made
in process/product development
through a “technical advantage”
requires both fundamental and
applied research. The
engineering-practice orientation
in our programs and our
willingness to create two-way
opportunities for personnel
training can be a major
attraction in this regard.
I am excited about the future of
our School. I believe the
quality of our students, the
quality and commitment of our
faculty and staff as well as the
support of our alumni provide a
strong basis for our continued
success and for greater
accomplishments.
I do appreciate your support,
and I look forward to hearing
from you.
Sincerely,
Khaled A. M. Gasem
Professor, Bartlett Chair and
Head |
