CHEE Class Notes - April 2021

Dylan Kline
Class of 2016, BS in Chemical Engineering
kline11@llnl.gov

I finished my PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland College Park in Fall 2020! The graduate school experience was really transformative for me, and I wouldn't have considered pursuing a research career without the motivation I got as an undergraduate from my professors at the University of Arizona who told me to keep going. I am so thankful for their support.

After a little over four years with NASA, I decided it was time to see what else was out there. I packed my bags and moved to northern California in January 2020 to start a job at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where I am working on new manufacturing and characterization techniques for energetic materials.

I gave a brief talk to Dr. Blowers' CHEE 201 class right after I graduated, but if anybody is interested in learning more about working at a national laboratory (or for NASA), I'd be happy to help in any capacity I can. I hope I can return to Tucson to catch up with everybody soon.

Nabila Huq
Class of 2012, BS in Chemical Engineering
nabila.asem.huq@gmail.com

Alex Harris
Class of 2012, BS in Chemical Engineering
aharris376@gmail.com

Alex Harris and I, both 2012 chemical engineering alumni, got married in November! We also just moved back to Arizona with our pandemic puppy Sumo, after many years in Colorado.

Pictured: Sumo's adoption day.

Jim Rednor
Class of 1974, BS in Chemical Engineering
jrednor@yahoo.com

This is the first time I have informed the department of my career accomplishments. I have been in the industrial water purification business for over 35 years in Arizona and the southwestern United States. Throughout my career, I have sold and installed the majority of the commercial/industrial reverse osmosis systems in Arizona. I have started four separate water purification companies and sold three of them to major corporations, the last one being CIW Services to Siemens Corp. My customers included all the major utilities – Arizona Public Service Electric, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power – as well as other organizations including Honeywell, Boeing, General Dynamics, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.

When we sold CIW Services in 2006, it was the largest water purification company in the Southwest and an Inc. 500 company. I helped Dr. Shadman set up an ultrapure water purification system for the UA chemical engineering department. of CIW Services. We are a registered Defense Department contractor that has numerous contracts with the U.S. Navy. I also do water purification consulting.

Marino Fuentes
Class of 1964, BS in Chemical Engineering

I enjoyed my career as a chemical engineer. All I can tell you is that I was blessed to have gone to Arizona in 1961 as a young exile from communist Cuba. I will always have a special place in my heart for the University of Arizona and the professors who helped me navigate a college career in what at that time was a foreign country.

I worked for PPG Industries for 35 years, from 1964 to my retirement in 1999. I now live in Peachtree City, Georgia with my wife. We moved around a few times during my career with PPG Industries. After I retired, we decided we wanted to be closer to the grandkids, so we moved south to get away from winter and snow. I’m enjoying golfing and keeping active, which has many benefits for older adults.

Enjoy your time at Arizona, and if I get back to Tucson, I would love to stop and visit with you and tour the CHEE Department. Good luck to everyone!

Nick Schott
Class of 1968, MS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 1971, PhD in Chemical Engineering
jeanschott@aol.com

I received my MS in chemical engineering under the supervision of Dr. Don White in May 1968. I started the MS in the fall of 1965 and just recently looked at my thesis. It seems like it took a long time in those days to finish an MS thesis compared to now. Back then, the MS work was expected to include graduate laboratory research. I did my work on the viscous breakup of polymer solutions which required that I build an apparatus out of two 8-inch diameter stainless steel pipe caps.

At that time, the Vietnam war was heating up, and my request for end caps was considered low priority, so I had to wait almost a year for their delivery. So, I claim I was not a slow learner!

I went on to get my PhD, also under Dr. White, again working with polymers, researching the dynamics of the single screw plasticating extruder in the unit ops lab. I completed my degree in the summer of 1971.

I had to work very late at night for both degrees. For the MS, I had to wait until about midnight when other students went home to do some of my work, sometimes with the help of my former roommate, John Heibel (who received his PhD in about 1969). A pressure vessel made of end caps would eject droplets through an attached nozzle, and John would use a strobe light camera to capture the drops in the dark. The drops fell into the infamous pit in the unit ops lab. John just recently married, and I had to tell Dr. White that I had to finish the research since his wife was not used to him being out half the night. I also had a late-night problem in my doctoral research. I collected my data on the PDP11 Digital Equipment Computer and had to wait until other students had completed their work on the computer. The computer took up a whole classroom next to Dr. Allen Randolph's office. It was one of the few places with air conditioning. When I started work at UMASS Lowell, they had a rule that only computer rooms and bio labs with monkeys and live animals got AC.