AIChE East Tennessee - January 2001

Vertebrate fossils have recently been discovered during highway construction near Gray, Washington County, Tennessee. Fossil bones include the remains of fish, crocodilians, tortoises, turkeys, tapirs, rhinoceroses, proboscideans, and mustelids. The genera of rhinoceros (Teleoceras) and tapir (Tapiravus) recovered from the Gray Site became extinct approximately five million years ago. Both are extremely rare in North America. Rhino and tapir stratigraphic context at Gray indicate that other fossils from the site are probably of a similar age.

What:	January East Tennessee Section of AIChE Dinner Meeting (Joint meeting with the Analytical Science Seminar group)
Speaker:	Professor Klippel from the University of Tennessee
Topic:	“Vertebrate Paleontology and the Gray Site Fossils from Upper East Tennessee”
When:	January 22^nd, Dinner at 5:30 p.m., Talk begins at 7:00 p.m.
Where:	Eastman Lodge

This month’s local section meeting will be held jointly with the Analytical Science Seminar (A.S.S.) group. This will be their annual chili meeting and will include a variety of chili offerings from chemists and engineers, as well as breads, rice and suitable beverages. Ice cream will be served for dessert. As always, families are welcome at this meeting. The cost per person is $4, and children under 5 are free.

Welcome to this first edition of our AIChE Pipeline newsletter for 2001 and to our new Pipeline co-editor, Burts Compton. As outgoing Chair for our East Tennessee Section of AIChE for the year 2000, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the outstanding slate of officers, directors, and support staff who worked with me in such a cooperative and enthusiastic manner to make this a memorable year for our section. Special thanks to the program committee members who developed an excellent group of programs this past year and to all of the section members who made the effort to participate in the programs. Thanks also to our section Webmaster, Tim Nolen, for developing our outstanding new local section website (http://www.geocities.com/aiche_etenn/aiche.html), and to our newsletter co-editors, Jennifer Mize and Justin Abnee, for such excellent quality newsletters this past year.

As we start the new year, I turn over responsibility of the section to our new Chair, David Hitch, and to the new slate of officers, directors, and support staff who were elected in December and are listed below. This is an exceptional group of officers, directors, and staff who should continue, and even enhance, the excellent progress made by our section during the past few years. I look forward to their leadership and ask each of you to lend them your full support. Let your new officers and/or directors know if you have any ideas to help our section better serve its members or if you have program ideas for next year.

Thanks for the opportunity of serving you as Section Chair this past year! I wish each of you a very wonderful new year.

Bill Fortenberry from Eastman Chemical Company was the speaker for the December 2000 joint meeting of the East Tennessee AICHE and TSPE . He talked about Eastman Chemical Company’s due diligence process in mergers and acquisitions. Bill was filling in for Phillip Tidwell who had to be away on business.

Bill discussed the current environment and challenges of mergers and acquisitions. There are record number of transactions and record prices being paid. Recently M&A’s have been less active. However, the hostile take over in the chemical industry has started to emerge. This would have been unheard of in the 1995 to 1996 time frame. The success rate for mergers and acquisitions is less than twenty percent. Success is defined as “we had ok results and I would do it again”. In seventy-five to eighty percent of the transactions those involved say they would never do it again.

The M&A process involve strategy development, candidate search and selection, negotiation and execution and finally implementation. The first step is to develop screening criteria and to clarify the need to be met. The selection and screening criteria should include any “show stoppers” and allow distinction between candidates.

Once a potential candidate has been selected the intense due diligence process begins. The due diligence process includes assessing the risk of overstated assets, the risk of understated liabilities, the risk of overstated earnings, the overall health and sustainability of the business, the data integrity and the potential synergies and value to your company. The keys to a successful process are to use a standardized valuation and methodology such as DCF, CAPM and trend analysis and the estimated impact on Eastman financials.

Once an M&A is agreed to, a confirmatory due diligence is performed. At this time you will have more information to confirm that your first assumptions were correct. A much larger team is involved in this process including members from investment services, operations, legal, safety, environmental and others. Integration planning takes place during the confirmatory due diligence. The last phase of the process is the transition execution, which takes >6-9 months where 1-3 months is spent on closing and all the regulatory filings. Communications is very important during the transition phase when employees want to know the immediate impact on them personally. No information usually means people assume the worst.

ational Engineers Week will be celebrated February 18-24, 2001. The purpose of National Engineers Week is to increase the public's awareness and interest in the engineering profession.

During National Engineers Week, over 40,000 engineers will visit thousands of classrooms to participate in various activities such as:

· Discover "E": Volunteers visit K-12 classrooms to talk with students about what engineers do and show practical applications of math, science, and engineering.

The Upper East Tennessee Engineers Week Committee has been soliciting volunteers and planning school visits. Currently, we have commitments from 174 volunteers from five companies.

We are currently planning to visit 42 area schools. Tysinger, Hampton & Partners, Inc. is also supporting the Upper East Tennessee Engineers Week Committee.

· Student Internet Site: www.discoverengineering.org is the Internet site developed by Eastman Chemical Company, the American Ceramics Society, educators, and students for students in 6th-9th grades for National Engineers Week 1999. The site highlights the contributions of engineers and provides information, activities, and links to other resources to encourage young people to discover more about engineering.

Volunteers are still needed for area Discover "E" visits. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Brian Eiselstein at 423-229-5915. For more information regarding National Engineers Week and how to get involved access the website www.eweek.org or contact Jennifer Mize at 423-224-7018.

The Professional Engineering Exam for Chemical Engineers is offered twice annually: in the middle of April, and at the end of October. In the past, the East Tennessee Section of AIChE has offered a review course for those planning to sit for the exam. The winter months seem to be more conducive to studying for the exam, so the course has traditionally been offered in February and March. Many who do not plan to sit for the exam until October also attend the class, however, in order to refresh their memories about the topics they will be reviewing.

If you are interested in attending this course, please contact Joe Parker at 423-229-3850 (mailto:
jlparker@eastman.com) so we can determine if there is sufficient interest to hold the course next year.

The class would meet one night a week for six weeks; each week, a different subject would be reviewed. The subjects that would be covered by the course are:

Each session would last two to three hours. The course would begin around the first week in February, and the cost would be $25 per person.

EVEN IF YOU ALREADY HOLD AN ENGINEERING LICENSE, YOU MAY WISH TO ATTEND THIS COURSE! The State of Tennessee requires each licensed engineer to obtain 24 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) over a two-year period in order to retain his or her engineering license. The East Tennessee Section of AIChE will award PDHs according to the number of class hours attended. Students who attended all sessions of the course in 2000 received 14 PDHs, more than enough to satisfy the requirement for one year.

Each year, AIChE (National) presents a number of awards to individuals and to local sections who have made superlative contributions to AIChE and/or the chemical engineering profession. Following are brief descriptions of the awards for which our local section or section members might be qualified for nomination. Additional information on these and all other AIChE awards may be found at the AIChE website http://www.aiche.org/awards. If you would like to recommend a person(s) or our section for one of these awards, please contact David Denton (229-6559) by no later than the end of January. Thanks for any names you may recommend.

Recognizes outstanding contributions in the chemical engineering field. It is presented to a member of AIChE who has had an important impact on chemical engineering and whose achievements, either specific or general, have advanced the profession in any of its aspects. The recipient should have a long and distinguished record of service to the profession, including both technical and professional activities. The award consists of a gold medal, a plaque, and $3,000 per award recipient.

Recognizes a chemical engineer for outstanding contributions and service to AIChE and is presented to a member of AIChE who has made outstanding contributions to the chemical engineering profession via service to the Institute. These contributions should emphasize achievements in both the professional and technical areas of Institute activities. The recipient will have contributed to innovative approaches to meet both perceived and unperceived membership needs. The award consists of a plaque and $5,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Recognizes a local section for its excellent newsletters. Criteria include: effectiveness of communication (clarity, humor, and presentation); content; innovation and quality.

Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of AIChE:

Encourages excellence in publications by a member of AIChE less than 36 years of age. The award is presented to a member of AIChE for significant contributions to chemical engineering through publications. The award consists of a plaque and $5,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Recognizes an individual’s outstanding accomplishments during the past ten years in fundamental or applied chemical engineering research. The winner will present their work at an AIChE meeting or at a symposium arranged in his or her honor. The award consists of a plaque and $5,000.

Recognizes outstanding chemical engineering contributions to a successful innovation of commercial or societal importance. Innovation may be evidenced by the creation of a new technology – process, product, or application – and its successful commercialization. The contribution may be in one or more of the various phases of the innovation process, such as conception, research, development, design, etc., and may be made in the form of an individual contribution or in the form of technical leadership and integration. The award consists of a plaque and $12,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Recognizes outstanding contributions to community service and to the solution of socially oriented problems. The award is presented to an AIChE member who has made an outstanding contribution in identifying and solving community and social problems. Contributions should emphasize the awardee’s concern for the common good, willingness to give time and comfort, and the ability to draw together varied resources to solve problems. The award consists of a plaque and $2,000.

Recognizes outstanding chemical engineering contributions in the industrial practice of the profession. The award is presented to an AIChE member whose contributions may be in areas including, but not limited to, development, design, manufacturing, marketing, economic analysis, and planning. In general, the awardee will have made a contribution as a chemical engineering innovator or implementer of a research development, or through achievement as a supervisor or manager or leader in which the chemical engineer brought to fruition a significant development. The award consists of a plaque and $4,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Recognizes outstanding progress in the field of chemical engineering by someone less than 45 years of age. The awardee will have made a significant contribution to the science of chemical engineering through a theoretical discovery or development of a new principle in chemical engineering, development of a new process or product, an invention or development of new equipment, or distinguished service rendered to the field or profession of chemical engineering. The award consists of a plaque and $4,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Recognizes an individual’s significant and new contribution in chemical reaction engineering. The recipient will have advanced the frontiers of chemical reaction engineering through originality, creativity, and novelty of concept or application. The award consists of a plaque and $3,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

Presented to an AIChE member who has made an outstanding contribution to chemical engineering literature within the past 3 years. The contribution may consist of a review, a history of the development of a process, a theoretical contribution, a research report, or other material of interest and importance to the chemical engineering profession. The award consists of a plaque and $5,000, plus a $500 travel allowance.

The Minority Affairs Committee of AIChE presents this award to recognize a chemical engineer’s outstanding achievements as a distinguished role model for minorities. The award consists of a plaque and $1,000.

Recognizes an individual’s significant contributions to the understanding or improvement of the technology of the coating of continuous webs. The award consists of a plaque and $1,000.

The various AIChE Divisions offer a number of awards recognizing outstanding contributions in the areas of: catalysis and chemical reaction engineering; application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering; environmental chemical engineering; food, pharmaceutical, and/or bioengineering; forest products and related industries; petrochemicals; heat transfer or energy conversion; management of engineers in the chemical industry; materials engineering and science; mixing; fluidization or fluidized processes; particle technology; fluid-particle systems; loss prevention, safety, and/or health; and separations technology. See the AIChE website for more details on these particular awards.

New AIChE Officers, Directors & Support Staff

Please welcome the following new officers, directors, and support staff for the year 2001 for our East Tennessee Section of AIChE: