Professor to be named fellow of AIChE
November 5, 2010
Bill Elmore, interim department head for the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, will be awarded the classification of Fellow at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) annual meeting in Salt Lake City later this month.
The grade of Fellow is a distinguished class of membership that identifies and honors a group of senior member chemical engineers who have made meaningful impacts in the chemical engineering profession. With more than 40,000 members from over 90 countries, Elmore is one of 904 members to hold this distinction.
June Wispelwey, AIChE executive director, said, “This is the highest grade of membership and an honor designated by peers that testifies to the fact that Dr. Elmore is held in high regard for his distinctive professional accomplishments and contributions in the areas of teaching, research and service.”
Working in the profession for more than 25 years, and serving at the senior member level in the AIChE for the past three years, Elmore began his engineering career working for Cargill Inc. He then pursued his passion for teaching and worked for Louisiana Tech University (LTU) for 15 years, receiving promotions from assistant professor to program chair to academic director to full professor. At LTU he earned outstanding teaching and advising awards, among other classroom accolades and committee and senate nominations.
In 2005, Elmore was recruited to Mississippi State and appointed the Hunter Henry Chair and associate professor in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering. Since accepting the position, Elmore has been promoted to associate director of the school and now serves as the interim director. He has been nominated twice for Mississippi State’s Irvin Atly Jefcoat Excellence in Advising Award and nominated for three consecutive years at the national level for the AIChE Student Adviser award.
He has served as AIChE Student Chapter adviser for 21 years. Under his leadership, the MSU AIChE student chapter has earned the Outstanding Student Chapter of the Year for five consecutive years. The honor is awarded to only 10 percent of more than 160 AIChE student chapters throughout the country.
“One of the highlights of my educational career has been the privilege of seeing our future leaders in chemical engineering emerge through the many activities associated with our student chapter of AIChE,” Elmore said. “I am firmly convinced that these individuals will become influential, not only within the profession, but throughout their communities and organizations they move into.”
“The grade of Fellow is a level of distinction that is awarded to only the most accomplished chemical engineers in the profession,” explained Sarah Rajala, dean of the Bagley College of Engineering. “We are proud of Dr. Elmore’s dedication and contributions and value the national level of exposure he brings to the college through his expertise.”
Over the course of his career, Elmore has played an integral role in renewable energy and educational projects which have earned more than $4 million in external funding. He has authored 20 publications and given 88 presentations and workshops at educational venues and professional conferences.
Last year, he and colleagues at MSU came in second for the Best Paper Award in the American Society for Engineering Education First-Year Programs Division. Elmore received his doctorate from the University of Arkansas in 1990.
AIChE is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals. The organization offers a breadth of resources and engineering expertise—whether it is in core process industries or emerging areas, such as nano- and biotechnology.