Following a two-year hiatus in overseas travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), Professor David Bogle, has recently visited members and stakeholders in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
With over 5,000 IChemE members based in these regions, the purpose of the President’s visit was to demonstrate the Institution’s continued commitment to members based outside of the UK.
A highlight of the visit was the President’s keynote address at Chemeca, the annual Australian and New Zealand conference of chemical and process engineers run by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers, an event which IChemE hosted this year.
During Chemeca, David joined a panel discussion on the next 100 years of chemical engineering, and also presented the winners of the Chemeca Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Student Hackathon competition, the University of Melbourne, with their award, and presented the Jubilee Medal to Paul Taranto at the Chemeca Gala Dinner.
With the visit beginning in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, David met with the IChemE Malaysia Board, stakeholders from PETRONAS, and representatives at the Institute of Engineers Malaysia to further cooperation. He also attended a member group event and joined meetings with the University of Nottingham Malaysia and Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. This was followed by a meeting with the IChemE Singapore Board and a visit to the National University of Singapore before heading to Australia.
Whilst in Australia, David also met with the IChemE Australia Board and joined the Head of Chemical Engineering departments of Australasia meeting. He also visited the Liveris Building for chemical engineering at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and joined meetings with Institute for Social Science Research, Sustainable Minerals Institute and the Queensland division of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
Many topics were discussed during the President’s meetings with a recurring theme being the importance of ensuring that ethical thinking is placed at the forefront of chemical engineering professionalism and education. This theme was reinforced during David’s Chemeca keynote address with the title of his presentation being ‘Ethics in chemical engineering’.
During their terms of office, IChemE Presidents endeavour to meet with as many members and stakeholders as possible. Given the travel restrictions over the last two years, due to the pandemic, in recent times much of this engagement has taken place virtually. The last visit to Australia by an IChemE President was undertaken by Past President Ken Rivers in 2019. Since then, there have been significant changes in the organisation, governance structures and membership subscription arrangements, therefore the opportunity for the President to discuss these topics with members face to face was extremely valuable.
