International Benchmarking of U.S. Chemical Engineering Research Competitiveness (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Chemical Engineering Research: Its Key Characteristics, Its Importance for the United States, and the Task of Benchmarking
2 Chemical Engineering Research: Its Key Characteristics, Its Importance for the United States, and the Task of Benchmarking
Pages 24-38
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From page 24... ...
Systems of interest most often include products, processes for making them, and applications for using them. Beyond designing, manufacturing, and using products, chemical engineering also includes devising new ways to measure, effectively analyze, and possibly redesign complex systems involving chemical and biological processes.
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From page 25... ...
There is an often discussed overlap between applied sciences �chemistry, biology, and physics� and chemical engineering; often they share the same objective, but use different approaches and methodologies and thus they are synergistic. Research in chemical engineering seeks to explain �analyze� and control �synthesize� one or more of the following five basic elements of a system of interest �product, process, or application�: • the physical, chemical, and/or biological phenomena occurring in the system of interest • the performance of the system of interest, that is, the model-based estimate and/or direct measurement of its properties and usefulness in actual or simulated conditions of application • the structure and composition of the system of interest that determine the system's properties and performance �e.g., the type of processing units in a manufacturing process and their interconnections, the type of atoms in a chemical product or material and their interconnections, the type of materials and components in a device and their interconnections, the type of reactions in combustion and their interrelationships� • the synthesis and processing by which a particular product �chemical, material, device� is achieved • the optimization of any of the above to achieve maximum commercial or societal value For the purposes of this benchmarking exercise, the Panel divided chemical engineering research into nine major areas with several subareas in each:
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From page 26... ...
Polymerization reaction engineering d. Electrochemical processes Area-3: Engineering Science of Biological Processes a.
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From page 27... ...
Chemical engineering synthesizes knowledge from several disciplines �multidisciplinary� and interacts with researchers from multiple disciplines �interdisciplinary�. Today in all areas and subareas of interest to chemical engineering, researchers from various disciplines actively compete and collaborate with chemical engineering researchers: applied physicists in fluid mechanics, solid particle technologies, thermodynamics, polymers, rheology, nanostructured materials, protein engineering, molecular and interfacial processes; applied chemists in catalysis, kinetics, all types of materials, molecular and interfacial processes, protein engineering; biologists in biocatalysis, protein engineering, cellular and metabolic engineering, biomaterials, cellular and tissue engineering, biomedical devices, synthetic biology; materials scientists and engineers in all types of materials; and computer scientists, electrical engineers, and operations research and applied mathematicians in all aspects of process systems engineering �modeling, simulation, optimization, control, information technology�.
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From page 28... ...
Chemical engineering research in the United States benefits from the large installed base of research facilities. Europe and Asia have been making significant and sustained fixed-capital investments over the last 10 years.
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From page 29... ...
Biology has become as core as chemistry and physics have been for the last 100 years of chemical engineering research. Chemical engineering research requires sustained investment and close interaction with industry.
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In all of these developments, chemical sciences and engineering will continue to play a pivotal role, and thus chemical engineering research will continue to be critical. To be a leader in industrial growth and to promote a vibrant economy, it is critical that the United States be among the world leaders in all areas of chemical engineering.
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From page 31... ...
The possibilities are seemingly unbounded, but if the United States is to exploit these possibilities, strong national research capabilities by single investigators and multidisciplinary teams are required. Maintaining excellence across the dynamic range of chemical engineering research is essential.
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Assessing leadership and innovation in chemical engineering research would require measuring value-adjusted rates of �a� creation of new products and services; �b� product, process, and service improvements; and �c� cost reduction through innovation. Such an approach is presently feasible within the confines of a single company but not at an international scale, where detailed data on research and financial performance from a multitude of industrial concerns worldwide are not available.
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From page 33... ...
To ensure that the results of this exercise would reflect chemical engineering research, the Panel decided that at least 50% of the experts selected should be from chemical engineering. No constraints were placed on the fractional representation of chemical engineers in the Virtual World Congress of a specific subarea.
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From page 34... ...
Analysis of Research Publications and Impact The Panel selected a list of leading journals with significant impact factors for this analysis. Given the broad range of journals in which chemical engineers publish, and in an effort to assess current trends in the direction of chemical engineering research, the Panel selected the journals as follows: • Journals with broad coverage of chemical engineering research, e.g., o AIChE Journal o Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research o Chemical Engineering Science • Journals with broad coverage of sciences and engineering disciplines in which chemical engineers publish, e.g., o Science o Nature o Proceedings of the National Academy of Science • Leading journals for each subarea of chemical engineering: o Area-specific journals where researchers from various sciences and/or engineering disciplines publish, along with researchers from chemical engineering, e.g., Langmuir, Journal of the Amer ican Chemical Society, Physics of Fluids o Area-specific journals where chemical engineering researchers are the primary contributors, e.g., Computers and Chemical Engineering, Journal of Chemical Process Control The table in Appendix 3B lists all of the journals considered by the Panel.
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From page 35... ...
Most Significant Advances in Chemical Engineering The most significant advances in chemical engineering research during the period 1996-2006 were identified, as well as the location where they originated. This information was used by Panel members to assess the relative position of chemical engineering research in the United States in each area and subarea.
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From page 36... ...
Based on these effects of globalization, the Panel believes that the results of this benchmarking exercise are of value for assessing the future course of U.S. chemical engineering research not only within the confines of the United States but also within the world at large.
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panel members was very helpful in this regard. In addition, all the Panel members have extended familiarity of and experience with chemical engineering research not only in Europe but also in Asian countries.
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From page 38... ...
Publication rates and citations per paper vary widely among the various subareas of chemical engineering, and the Panel resisted making broad comparisons of different subareas in terms of these metrics. The only exception is the analysis of publications in the journals with broad coverage of chemical engineering, namely, AIChE Journal, I&EC Research, and Chemical Engineering Science, because the Panel wanted to assess the trends of publication rates in various subareas of chemical engineering over time.
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