These guiding principles will help you prepare properly and avoid making this task more unpleasant than it has to be If you ever find yourself in a management position, inevitably at some point you will have to terminate an employee.…
Introduction to Process Engineering & Design. By S. B. Thakore and B. I. Bhatt. Tata McGraw Hill, B-4, Sector 63, Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, UP-201301. Web: tatamcgrawhill.com. 2007. 768 pages, Rs 500. Reviewed by Michael E. Ryan, Department of…
The relationship between attorney and inventor is very important. A potentially valuable patent is involved, and the value of it is often dependent in large part on how well the inventor and attorney work together. It is very…
Fundamentals of Industrial Catalytic Processes, Second Edition. By C.H. Bartholomew and R.J. Farrauto. John Wiley & Sons, 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ. Web: wiley.com. 2006. 966 pages. $99.95 Reviewed by Richard D. Newman, Ph.D., CRI Catalyst Company, Houston, Tex. This…
Chemical engineers, whether directly engaged in R&D or not, routinely deal with situations that are new and different, not only to them, but to those in the chemical process industries (CPI) as a whole. Quite often, the way…
While statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS; Washington, D.C.; www.bls.gov) and trends reported by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Arlington, Va.; www.americanchemistry.com) suggest chemical engineers seeking work may be singing the blues, chemical processors and…
Fluid Mechanics for Chemical Engineers. Second edition. By James O. Wilkes. Prentice Hall PTR, 1 Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Web: phptr.com. 2005. 784 pages. $120.80. Reviewed by Ron Darby, Texas A&M University, College Station, Tex. This is…
Compressors and Modern Process Applications. By Heinz P. Bloch. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Web: wiley.com. 2006. 339 pages, $99.95. Reviewed by Stanley S. Grossel, Process Safety & Design, Inc., Clifton, N.J. This is…
What skills are required to effectively lead a project team? Leadership is different from management, requires different knowledge, a different skill set, and accomplishes a different purpose. Management deals with the present; leadership deals with the future. Management…
Everyone knows that engineers are good with numbers. We can measure, calculate, tabulate, and report results accurately. But after you take pains to get the numbers right in your reports, sales brochures, or capital expenditure requests, readers in…