Spring 2018 CHEE Class Notes

Joe Flanagan

Class of 1962, BS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 1963, MS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 1968, PhD in Chemical Engineering

In January, Joe Flanagan was with Dick Edwards, professor emeritus of chemical engineering and vice president emeritus of UA Student Relations, as he celebrated his 98th birthday.

Kal Miller

Class of 1962, BS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 1964, MS in Chemical Engineering
kalbar1@aol.com

In the last newsletter, I sent a photo of myself and our two Airedales with train cars behind us. Now I’d like to talk about the train layout itself.

Whiskey Flats Railroad: The railroad is in our backyard and has been under construction or revision for the past 25 years. It is “G” gauge track with a scale of 1 to 22.5, as compared to the real thing. There are about 16 engines and 110 pieces of rolling stock ranging from freight to passenger cars. The layout rests on about 160,000 pounds of crushed rock and includes 2,500 pounds of copper ore from Superior, Arizona, and 18,000 pounds of river rock used to create Turkey Creek.

There are currently 900 feet of solid brass rails used to form two large railroad loops and one trolley car loop. For those people who are into rock materials, there are landscape features made from Ajo travertine, Montana travertine, purple quartz, Montana cloud, echo Mt. Green, antique oab, Sedona red strip, Ettawa pink, copper ore, Yavapai Indian coral and petrified wood.

A number of oak log tunnels are featured as well. For those familiar with Central Arizona, much of the materials in the railroad were retrieved from the Bradshaw Mountains, including Ash Ridge, Big Bug Mesa, Spruce Mountain, Turkey Creek, Goodwin, Maverick Mountain, Palace Station, Crooks Canyon, Sedona and Camp Woods.

There are about 30 buildings in the layout, a few of which had turned into tasty treats over the years for the two Airedales featured in the last newsletter. Most of the bridges are metal, with the largest one being the 16-foot Hellsgate Bridge installed before PBS filmed the layout a few years ago for its Tracks Ahead series.

Mac Goekler

Class of 1968, BS in Chemical Engineering
macgoekler@gmail.com

Newton Don (fellow Class of 1968 alumnus) suggested I send something about my current travels.

A Family and Friends Trip Down Under: We started at Margaret River in southwest Australia with a wedding for our niece Claire and later a birthday party for her father, Terry. Then we were off to Australia’s capital, Canberra, to visit with Kamala – a Fulbright scholar who the family sponsored in the 1960s – and her family.

Next, we are off to Sydney, then to Christchurch and Nelson in South Island, New Zealand, for more family. To top off our monthlong adventure, we will end up in Auckland with more family. International family and friends networks are becoming common.

Wayne Seames

Class of 1979, BS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 2000, PhD in Chemical Engineering
wayneseames@mail.und.edu

Wayne Seames received the Lydia and Arthur Saiki Faculty Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching at the 2018 Founder’s Day ceremony at the University of North Dakota.

Seames is also the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at UND. He was selected by a panel of faculty to receive one of UND’s two individual universitywide, annual teaching awards.

In his nomination letter, fellow faculty member Gautham Krishnamoorthy wrote, “Wayne is one of the most energetic teachers in our department who has always gone above and beyond what was expected of him. He is extremely innovative and constantly looks for ways to address the needs of both online and on-campus students. In this regard, he was the first faculty member in our department to promote active learning techniques in our courses.”

Seames is no stranger to universitywide awards. He has received individual awards for excellence in teaching, individual research and collaborative research. He was also given UND’s faculty scholar award (Professor of the Year) in 2013. He has contributed to four department awards for excellence in either teaching or research, making Seames one of the most decorated faculty members in the department’s history.

Shariq Siddiqui

Class of 2008, MS in Chemical Engineering
Class of 2011, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering
shariq.ali.siddiqui@gmail.com

After leaving the UA, I joined Intel Logic Technology Development in Portland, Oregon, as a senior engineer, where my work focused on developing surface cleaning and passivation methods for advanced technology nodes, including fin field-effect transistor, or FINFET, devices.

I joined GLOBALFOUNDRIES' semiconductor technology research team in 2013 in Albany, New York, as a part of the Research Alliance team with IBM and Samsung.

Over the last several years, my primary research focus has been on developing interfacial layer and gate stack for silicon germanium (SiGe) and silicon devices, as well as wet chemical systems for next-generation interconnect materials.

I have over 20 publications, including several invited talks, and 25 patents (published and pending) in these areas. Currently, I’m a process manager for GLOBALFOUNDRIES's ion implant and anneal group, leading high-volume manufacturing technology.

Iesha Batts

Class of 2016, BS in Chemical Engineering
imbatts@email.arizona.edu

Formerly, I was the NSBE president. Now I am serving as AIChE section director and competition coordinator, and I am working in retail sales as I seek an engineering position.

Here is my LinkedIn page if anyone would like to connect.