2007-2008 Board Members
Chair
Don Chmielewski
chmielewski@iit.edu
Professor Chmielewski obtained his Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1991. In 2000, he earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles, and was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department at IIT. His research interests include; advanced control theory and modeling, control & optimization of fuel cell systems. At the national level, he is active in planning and participating in AIChE Annual Meetings, having organized and chaired numerous technical sessions within the CAST Division and the Fuel Cell Topical Conference.
Professor Chmielewski’s interest in AIChE Local Section activities began in 2001, when he took the role of Faculty Advisor to the IIT Student Chapter. In 2003 he received the Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award from IIT. In 2004 the student chapter hosted the North Central Regional Student Conference at IIT, and in 2005 the student chapter received the Outstanding Student Organization Award from IIT. Also, Professor Chmielewski and the student chapter served on the planning committee for the local section’s 2005 Symposium “Chemical Engineering at the Cross Roads of Technology” which was held on the IIT campus. In addition, Professor Chmielewski served as chair of the Fuel Cell Systems technical session at the 2005 Symposium.
Past Chair
Brian Gahan
bgahan@alumni.pitt.edu
Brian C. Gahan is Manager, E&P Technology Development in the Exploration, Production and Gas Processing Center at Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in Des Plaines, Illinois. He is responsible for the planning and management of advanced technology research, and development and commercialization of products and processes. His responsibilities include market assessment, technology evaluation, and technology transfer and business development. He received a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Marietta College, an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. He is also an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Laser Institute of America. He served as secretary of the Chicago AIChE section in 2004-05.
Chair-Elect
Osman Mehmet Akpolat
osman.akpolat@gastechnology.org
Osman Mehmet Akpolat is a scientist at Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Gas Processing Center where he has been involved in natural gas upgrading processes using many different approaches. He has worked in removal of contaminants such as H2S, water and Hg. He is responsible from screening and selecting analytical instruments for analysis of natural gas components and various other gases at concentration levels ranging from trace levels to percent levels. He has setup many laboratory units both in GTI Des Plaines facility, and on site at locations around US and Canada. He received a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1996 from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey and a M.S. degree in Chemistry in 1999 from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He is a member of the ACS and AIChE.
Secretary
Heather Mayes
Heather.Mayes@jacobs.com
Heather Mayes is a Consultant at Jacobs Consultancy in Chicago, in Energy, Fuels, and Petrochemicals. She has worked on projects including catalytic reforming, flare systems, and aromatics complexes. Previous to her work at Jacobs, she completed a senior design project in biobutanol and an internship at Argonne in nuclear waste processing. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2007 from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Treasurer
Steve Rosenblum
Steve.Rosenblum@uop.com
Steve Rosenblum is a Senior Applications Specialist At UOP where he supports all simulation products at UOP and creates tools to help UOP engineering with its work processes. He has been a member of AIChE since 1977. He has been active in the Chicago section since 2005 where he took on the role as membership chairman. Steve has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and a Masters of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University. Steve has worked for Badger Engineering (now Raytheon Engineers) as a design engineer, and ABB Simcon as a dynamic simulation and optimization engineer prior to joining UOP in 1997.
Vice-Chair, Program
Gerald W. Wilks
gwilks@citgo.com
Gerald Wilks began his technical career working as a summer intern for Continental Can R&D while attending IIT to get his BS in metallurgical engineering. At that summer job he was actually doing chemical engineering work developing a way to recycle cans through an electroplating process. One of the process problems was getting the electrolyte to regenerate without causing the pH of the solution to increase too much. One of his ideas about this problem resulted in an improved way to react solids with liquids. He was allowed to build a pilot plant and test the idea, and this eventually led to his first patent. After graduation, he went into the Air Force and worked gathering information on the Soviet Union from a small base in Northern Turkey near the town of Karamürsel (about 70 km from Istanbul). After graduating from the Air Force he moved back to Illinois and began working as a research engineer at LaSalle Steel Company. There he developed processes for heat treating steel that led to two more patents. While working at LaSalle he took evening classes at IIT, and in 1982 received a MS degree in metallurgical engineering.
In the mid-1980’s Gerald moved out of the steel industry and joined Amoco R&D in Naperville. His work there primarily pertained to solving corrosion problems that were occurring in all aspects of Amoco’s operations: oil extraction, refining, and chemicals. He published 4 papers on oil industry problems. He worked in R&D for about 10 years and also worked at Amoco’s Whiting Refinery for 10 years. His refinery work entailed materials selections for new equipment, material upgrades, corrosion analyses, failure analyses, welding processes, equipment reliability analysis and other aspects of refinery operations. While analyzing process equipment it became obvious that chemical engineering expertise would compliment his work so he began taking chemical engineering courses at IIT. After he took several courses, he joined AIChE to learn more about chemical engineering. His studies led to him receiving a MS in chemical engineering in 2005.
Director at Large
John Mylar
jmylar@northfieldlabs.com
John Mylar is the Director, Project Management for Northfield Laboratories, Inc and is the head of the Engineering Department there. Prior to joining Northfield, he worked for PPG Industries, Belcan Engineering, Abbott Laboratories, Davy McKee/John Brown E&C, Raytheon E&C/Washington Group International, and Middough.
John has been active in the Chicago AIChE section since 1988, serving as chair of the Constitution & Bylaws committee and helping to set up a successful PE review class put on by the Chicago section. John earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois. John is also active in the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE).