Spring 2019 CHEE Class Notes

Scott C. Roberts
Class of 1969, BS in Chemical Engineering
cathiscott7@gmail.com

After graduating from the UA, I earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Washington. My wife, Catherine, and I split our time between Houston, Texas, where she is co-founder of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, and Scottsdale, Arizona, where our son Chris lives. We have lived and worked in several states, and in Costa Rica, Mexico, England and the Netherlands, but Arizona remains my favorite.

I retired from Royal Dutch Shell in 2008 after working 35 years in their downstream oil and chemical businesses. My career ranged from technical assignments in research and engineering to business management roles in supply, trading and chemicals, to senior management roles such as president of Shell Mexico, vice president of global lower olefins, executive vice president of global chemicals manufacturing, and vice president of northwest Europe manufacturing.

I have served as chairman of the international board of Amigos de las Americas and on the boards of the Amigos de las Americas Foundation, the National Action Council for Minority Engineers, the Mexican Chemicals Manufacturer’s Association and currently with the Institute for Civility in Government. I have also served on chemical engineering advisory boards for Cornell, Colorado School of Mines and the University of Washington.

Currently I am volunteering as a trail ranger for Pinnacle Peak Park in Scottsdale. My passions include helping young people expand their potential, building peace in the world, enjoying Italy and Latin America, hiking, reading, and photography.

Greg Lorton
Class of 1971, BS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 1973, MS in Chemical Engineering
greglorton@yahoo.com

I worked for 13 years as a process design engineer, followed by 29 years as an environmental engineer and manager in Southern California. From 2000 to 2015, I worked for the Navy managing contaminated site investigation and remediation projects, primarily at Naval Air Station Alameda, and then managing the air quality compliance program for the naval bases in California and Nevada. I retired to a small community north of Escondido in San Diego County, California, in 2015.

In addition to my chemical engineering degrees, I received an MBA in management from California State University, Los Angeles and a DBA in strategic management from Alliant International University in San Diego. For the last 22 years, I’ve taught business and environmental science classes, and enjoyed the opportunity to teach senior chemical engineering design classes at the University of California, San Diego.

In 1987, I took up homebrewing – a hobby well-suited to chemical engineers – and I have encountered many other chemical engineers in the hobby. My interests have expanded to meadmaking, the craft brewing industry, and in the last 16 years, the craft distilling industry. These industries are particularly vibrant in San Diego County. I am assisting California State University, San Marcos in developing a new brewing certificate program in their extended studies program.

My fascination with distilling alcohol makes me think back fondly of the alcohol distillation problems we were assigned in the unit operations class, using McCabe-Thiele diagrams and stepping-off stages.

Greg Ogden informed me that the CHEE department was considering buying an alcohol still to supplement the old glass distillation column I operated in the unit operations lab way back in 1970. That compelled me to earmark my 2014 donation to the department specifically for the purchase and installation of the still. The still is now located in “the pit,” next to the glass column, and is used in chemical engineering lab courses.

William Reveron
Class of 2007, BS in Chemical Engineering
william.andrev@gmail.com

I’ve been living in Sydney, Australia, since 2009. That’s me in the picture, in front of the Sydney Opera House, enjoying a cup of coffee. If there’s anyone you trust for coffee, it’s an Aussie!

I always remember my days as a CHEE student with a lot of happiness and appreciation, particularly for all the mentorship I received that became instrumental in shaping my professional life.

Most recently, I became a director in a global consulting house, in the analytics modeling space. I’m also pursuing a second master’s degree, so life is busy these days. I am an avid tennis player, so this helps me maintain a balance. I hope everyone in the department is keeping well, and I look forward to visiting one day soon. Greetings from Sydney!

Njeri Carlton-Carew
Class of 2010, BS in Chemical Engineering
njericc@gmail.com

After completing my BS degree, I received my MS in chemical engineering from Howard University in 2013. I currently work for the Environmental Protection Agency as an environmental engineer in Atlanta, Georgia. My work consists of providing regulatory, programmatic and technical support to the state regarding its ambient air quality program.

I also wanted to share personal news: I will be getting married May 18 in Cozumel, Mexico, and I have attached our engagement photo [at the top of the page].

Caitlin Schnitzer
Class of 2013, BS in Chemical Engineering
cjschnit@email.arizona.edu

I moved back to Tucson and started a job at Raytheon as a senior quality assurance engineer. I’m so happy to be back in the desert!

Lance Hubbard
Class of 2014, MS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 2016, PhD in Chemical Engineering
lance.hubbard@pnnl.gov

I am a staff materials scientist in detector systems under the national security directorate of Pacific Northwest National Lab. PNNL is located in the orchard and vineyard country of Washington state. The weather is really nice up here. For most of the year it is about 15-20 F cooler than Tucson with the same desert vibe.

I have been getting my own funding, and helping out on some larger efforts. A list of my current work:

1. AlGaN ultraviolet avalanche photodiode design and construction
2. SiO2@ZnS@CdSe luminescent and explosion-resistant tracers
3. Zirconium electroplating from nonaqueous solvents
4. Uranium-10Mo fuel foil factory flow modeling
5. GaN-based radioactive battery modeling and construction

Attached is a photo of green glowing tracers picking up light from one laser and not the other.

We are always interested in collaboration at PNNL, and there may be opportunities for students to intern here on these projects or related work. If a student expresses interest, please let me know. It may take a year or two, but we can write them into a proposal and try to get them up here.

Fernando Lopez
Class of 2017, BS in Chemical Engineering
flopez2@email.arizona.edu

Post-graduation life has treated me well thus far, and much of it has to do with the degree that I walked away with from the UA.

I've traveled multiple times, mainly within the U.S., but also outside of it on two occasions to visit Dublin and Mexico City. I've worked for PepsiCo in Arizona for about a year and a half, received a promotion and a quarterly leadership award, and was then promoted recently again to a project management role in Dallas, my new home.

Outside of work, I remain active in my communities, having donated money and materials to the UA Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, or SHPE, and served as a professional liaison to the students as a board member of the SHPE Phoenix chapter. My involvement in SHPE will continue in the Dallas area.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to support CHEE students.

Ryan Petronella
Class of 2017, BS in Chemical Engineering
ryanpetronella@email.arizona.edu

Here is a picture of me from my climb up Grand Teton in Wyoming. I've also recently climbed in Yosemite Valley, where my friend Ryan and I climbed the regular northwest face of Half Dome – my biggest climbing objective yet! We had planned on trying a route up El Capitan, but it was a bit too warm to go for it. Also, I was thinking about our aerosols class while in the valley because the air quality was poor from all the smoke from surrounding wildfires.

I completed a year with Cognizant working in the IT industry and learned some valuable programming skills. Ultimately, I found that kind of work wasn't for me. I was fortunate to be able to put some savings aside and am currently traveling between jobs. I'm passionate about chemistry and excited to pursue a career in chemical engineering.

Namrah Shahid
Class of 2018, BS in Chemical Engineering and BS in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
nshahid@email.arizona.edu

This year, I have been studying astronomy at the University of Cambridge as a Churchill scholar. I have loved my time in England and have gotten to travel in Europe while I've been here. Next year, I'm planning on pursuing my PhD in planetary physics at the University of Oxford.

The photo is from my visit to Edinburgh Castle.

Brandon Velasquez
Class of 2018, BS in Chemical Engineering
bvelasquez@email.arizona.edu

Shortly after leaving Arizona, I was accepted into a graduate program at a school in Iceland called Háskólinn í Reykjavík, or Reykjavik University in English. I have been pursuing a Master of Science in sustainable energy engineering since July. I'm a part of the Iceland School of Energy, which is a specialized section of the university that often works with the power companies here in Iceland to develop clean energy projects related to hydropower, wind power and geothermal power.

This summer, I will be travelling to Manchester, U.K., for an internship and developing a project to rid the geothermal plants in Iceland of their silica scaling issues, using my background in chemical engineering to lead the way. If all goes well, I will continue this research into next year and work on this project for my master's thesis.

On top of all of this, I have had wonderful opportunities to travel around Iceland, hiking through fjords, exploring glaciers, watching the northern lights and admiring massive waterfalls. I've also had the opportunity to travel to mainland Europe and visit both Hungary and the Czech Republic.

A lot has happened for me this past year, and hopefully more good news follows. I hope all is well for the department in Harshbarger and look forward to hearing from others soon.