WriteUpZone

Chemical Engineering as a Career!

2013-12-16T23:18:00.001-08:00

Last May, chemical engineering seniors at a large university took their last final examination, attended their graduation ceremonies, flipped their tassels and threw their mortarboards in the air, enjoyed their farewell parties, said goodbye to one another and promised faithfully to stay in touch, and headed off in an impressive variety of geographical and career directions.

You all must be probably thinking about following in the footsteps of those graduates – spending the next few years learning to be a chemical
engineer and possibly the next 40 applying what you learn in a career. Even so, it is a fairly safe bet that, like most of the people in your position, you have only a limited idea of what chemical engineering is or what chemical engineers do.

Unfortunately, no universally accepted definition of chemical engineering exists, and almost every type of skilled work you can think of is done somewhere by people educated as chemical engineers.

CAREER THAT CHEMICAL ENGINEERS PURSUE

Consider these examples and see if any of them sound like the sort of career you can see yourself pursuing and enjoying.

Manufacturing firms

About 45% of the class went to work for a large chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper, plastics and other materials, or textile manufacturing firms.

Designing & Consulting Firms

Another 35% went to work for government agencies and design and consulting firms (many specializing in environmental regulation and pollution control) and for companies in fields such as microelectronics and biotechnology that have traditionally been associated with chemical engineering.

Advanced degree- Masters or Ph.D.

About 10% of the class went directly into graduate school in chemical engineering. The master’s degree candidates will get advanced education in traditional chemical engineering areas( thermodynamics, chemical reactor analysis and design, fluid dynamics, mass and heat transfer, and chemical process design and control), and in about two years most of them will graduate and get jobs doing process or control systems design or product development. The doctoral degree candidates will get advanced education and work on major research projects, and in four to five years most will graduate and either go into industrial research and development or join a university faculty.

Joining a Graduate School

The remaining 10% of the class went into graduate school in an area other than chemical engineering, such as medicine, law, and business.

Pharmaceuticals, Paints, Cosmetics and other product manufacturing Companies

Several graduates went to work for companies manufacturing specialty chemicals- pharmaceuticals, paint and dyes, and cosmetics, among many other products. All of the companies used to hire only chemists to design and run their production processes, but in the past few decades they discovered that if they wanted to remain competitive they would have to pay attention to such things as mixing efficiency, heat transfer, automatic temperature and liquid level control, statistical quality control, and control of pollutant emissions. They also discovered that those are areas in which chemical engineers are educated and chemists are not, at which point these industries became an increasingly important job market for chemical engineers.

Semiconductor circuits manufacturing companies

Some went to work for companies that manufacture integrated semiconductor circuits. A critical step in the production of (for example) computer chips involves coating small silicon wafers with extremely thin and uniform layers of silicon- containing semiconducting materials. The technique used for this process is chemical vapor deposition, in which the coating material is formed in a gas- phase reaction and then deposited on the surface of the wafer. The graduates working in this area may be called on to identify reactions that can be used to produce the desired films, determine the best conditions at which to run the reactions, design the reactors, and continue to improve their operation.

Biotechnology firms

Some took elective courses in biochemistry and microbiology and got jobs with small but rapidly growing biotechnology firms. One graduate works in the design of pharmaceutical production processes that involve immobilized enzymes, biological chemicals that can make specific reactions go orders of magnitude faster than they would on the absence of the enzymes. Several others work on processes that involve genetic engineering, in which recombinant DNA is synthesized and used to produce valuable proteins and other medicinal and agricultural chemicals that would be hard to obtain by any other means.

Plastics/ Polymers companies

Some joined companies that manufacture polymers (plastics). One is working on the development of membranes for desalination of seawater (fresh water passes through, salt is kept out) and for gas separations (hydrogen passes through and hydrocarbons are kept out and or vice versa); another is developing membranes to be used in hollow tube artificial kidneys (blood flows the patient’s body through thin-walled tubes; metabolic wastes in the blood pass through the tube walls but proteins and other important body chemicals remain in the blood is returned to the body).

Management Side

Four of the graduates went to medical school. (Chemical engineering graduates who take several electives in the biological sciences have a strong record of success in gaining medical school admission.) One went to law school. Three enrolled in Master of Business Administration programs and after graduation will probably move into management tracks in chemical related industries.

Environmental

One graduate joined the Peace Corps for a two-year stint in east Africa helping local communities to develop sanitary waste disposal systems and also teaching science and English in a rural school. When she returns, she will complete her Ph.D. program, join a chemical engineering faculty, write a definitive book on environmental applications of chemical engineering principles, quickly rise through the ranks to become a full professor, resign after ten and highly successful private foundation dedicated to improving education in economically deprived communities. She will attribute her career successes to the problem-solving skills she acquired in her undergraduate training in chemical engineering.

Laboratory Research- Chemical, biochemical, biomedical or Material Science domains

At various points in their careers, some of the graduates will work in chemical or biochemical or biomedical or material science laboratories doing research and development or quality engineering, at computer terminals designing processes and products and control systems, at field locations managing the construction and startup of manufacturing plants, on production floors supervising and troubleshooting and improving operations, on the road doing technical sales and service, in executive offices performing administrative functions, in government agencies responsible for environmental and occupation health and safety, in hospitals and clinics practicing medicine or biomedical engineering, in law offices specializing in chemical process-related patent work, and in classroom teaching the next generation of chemical engineering students.

Even the chemical engineering graduates who go into a traditional chemical manufacturing process end up performing a wide variety of different tasks. Consider the following example, and see if any of the problems described seem to present the sort of challenge you can see yourself taking on and enjoying.

Reference: Took from the book of Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes by Richard M. Felder & Ronald W. Rousseau.

Obesity, the evolving epidemic

2013-10-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Obesity, the evolving epidemic

By Quratulain Syedain, MD (Internist, New York)

Obesity refers to an excess of body fat. Obesity is defined in terms of body mass index (BMI) measured as weight in k.g. divided by height in meter square. For example a person weighs 61 k.g.(135 lbs) with height 5'8" which is 1.7 meter, so BMI is 61 / 1.7x1.7(2.89) = 21 k.g/m2. BMI between 18.5-24.9 is healthy weight. Below 18.5 is underweight ,25-29.9 is over-weight and over 30 is obesity. Over 40 is morbid obesity.

In the current epidemic one third of Americans are over-weight and one third are obese. In June 2013,American Medical Association has declared "obesity" a "disease" in itself implying that it’s not just a cosmetic and societal issue and not just to be blamed on gluttony (excessive eating and drinking) slothfulness (laziness) and a lack of willpower .Since it’s a disease, it requires management like other chronic (long-term) relapsing diseases like high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.

Obesity has various causes like dietary, genetic, hormonal disorders, inactivity and low birth weight. In the words of Donna Ryan, MD Professor Emeritus at Pennington Biomedical Research Center Louisiana "Obesity produces myriad diseases and disorders of feeling and function" Diverse spectrum of medical conditions are associated with obesity like type 2 (non-insulin dependent or adult onset) Diabetes ,sleep apnea ,cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure ,asthma, a number of cancers, fatty liver disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, osteoarthritis (joint inflammation and pain) and many other conditions. It’s not just the amount of fat matters but location of fat equally matters. Fat localized to abdomen has a particularly adverse profile. In adults with a BMI of 25 to 34.9 ,a waist circumference greater than 40 inches(102cm) for men and 35 inches(88cm) for women is associated with greater risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease. However there is ethnic variation for Asians. Like Japanese and South Asians have more total fat and visceral fat (fat in internal organs like liver) so in Asian men a value greater than 35.4 inches (90 cm) and in Asian women more than 31.5 inches (80cm) is considered abnormal.

But obesity is not just associated with these chronic medical conditions ,it also affects how patients feel and function .Obesity is associated with higher rates of depression ,infertility, impaired mobility (difficulty moving around) and urinary stress incontinence. There are a number of social problems associated with obesity .Obese people are stigmatized in societies, are less likely to marry and less likely to achieve higher educational levels. They also have lower incomes than non-obese people.

On the other hand modest weight loss in the range of 5-10% of body weight loss (regardless of original body weight) is associated with major health benefits .It improves a patient's risk of progressing to type 2 diabetes. In people who already have type 2 diabetes, modest weight loss can improve diabetes control and reduce or resolve the need for diabetes medications. It lowers blood pressure and can obliterate need of medication for high blood pressure. Besides improving symptoms of other obesity related conditions like sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, urinary stress incontinence.

The most efficient way to lose weight is through diet rather than exercise, although moderate exercise is important during the diet period. When it comes to the diets, the Mediterranean diet is shown to be the best. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine says that for preventing heart disease, the Mediterranean diet is the way to go .The study compared Med. diet with low-fat diet and it reported that Med. diet can lower risk for heart attack, stroke and chances of dying from these diseases by 30%.

Weight loss is slow and long-term process generally aims at loss of 1 lb. per week .Which requires energy deficit of 500 kCal/day through diet, exercise and increase physical activity. Exercise doesn't necessarily meant working out in GYM. Brisk walking 30 minutes daily suffice as optimal exercise.

Weight loss medications alone do not work .Medications are part of a diet, physical activity, and behavior modification program. There is paradigm shift in the medication management such as use of multiple medications together, at lower doses for long term not just for achieving weight loss but to sustain weight loss. Also patients need to be followed up by physician at-least monthly.

Bariatric (weight-loss) surgery is required for BMI over 40 to achieve weight loss of greater than 15% and is shown to cause remission of type 2 diabetes ,hypertension and reduces chances of dying from heart disease and stroke.

With combined efforts we can curtail the epidemic of obesity.

Stigma with Mental health Disorders

2013-08-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

By Quratulain Zehra Syedain, MD (Internist, New York)

Like body, mind can also be afflicted with illness and impairment. Brain is the most vital and complex organ of the body and can get diseased like any other organ. While physical illnesses and impairments drive sympathy, mental illnesses and impairments become a cause of being a laughing stock! "Cuckoo", "crazy" and "nuts" are some of the common terms used by lay persons and physicians alike. Conversation about psychiatric patients appears hilarious
and entertaining amongst even revered physicians. Worst- all sixteen different categories of psychiatric /mental health disorders are thrown in one basket and labeled as being "Psycho!"

Like impairment of vision, hearing, speech and use of limbs, a person can be born physical handicap or acquire such a condition later in life. Similarly a person can be born with Intellectual disability (the term is synonymous with and is now preferred over the older term Mental Retardation or Handicap) or develop it later due to illness or injury. Just as physically handicapped children, termed "special children" are accommodated in training and education, children with mild (IQ between 50 and 55 to approximately 70) and moderate (IQ between 35 and 40 to between 50 and 55 ) intellectual disabilities or mental retardation, if provided with appropriate education, vocational training, physical and occupational therapy can be utilized positively in society, instead of being left on streets neglected and abused. Besides, if diagnosed early in childhood with treatable conditions, the extent of potential disability can be minimized.

Other than being a mental handicap, there are variety of mental disorders like psychotic, mood, behavioral and personality disorders due to unknown and known causes like chemical imbalance in brain, environment, upbringing, exposure to abuse and trauma and intake of alcohol by parents during pregnancy. Since brain is such a complex organ, management of mental disorders is also not simple. Just like chronic medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, arthritis, acidity in stomach and blockage in arteries of heart to name a few, have no cure but can be well controlled with life style modification and medications, mental disorders too can be managed with medication and psychotherapy so that these patients do not pose danger to themselves and others and can contribute positively to society, instead of being abandoned on streets as lunatics/mad/crazy..

Ironically since mental disorders are considered a taboo and are stigmatized by society, no one likes to recognize their existence in themselves or in their near and dear ones. Hence visiting Psychiatrists/ Mental health providers is avoided. Ironically, even the Psychiatric hospitals are a source of fun and often referred as "pagal khana"( "house of mad" in Urdu).

In short, mental illnesses and impairments like physical illnesses and impairments are no cause of stigmatization and should be dealt in similar manners.