Alan Nelson, Ph.D., P.Eng., global R&D director for Performance Monomers at The Dow Chemical Company, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He will serve a three-year term beginning in 2015.

AIChE is the world's leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with over 45,000 members from more than 100 countries. Dr. Nelson joined AIChE in 1997, and has been an active member and leader in the organization. He was author of the National Student Design Competition in 2008 and chair of Area 1g (Engineering Science and Fundamentals, Low Pressure) from 2004 to 2008. He served as chair of the Education Services Committee from 2009 to 2010, and chair of the President's Blue Ribbon Committee on e-Learning from 2009 to 2012. Dr. Nelson was director of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE from 2009 to 2011. He has also served on the Institute Awards Selection Committee since 2011.

"Dr. Nelson has served AIChE in countless ways over the last 10 years, greatly enhancing our organization," said June Wispelwey, executive director of AIChE. "His expertise and leadership are well-known in the chemical engineering community. We welcome him to the board and look forward to his continued contributions to the Institute."

As global R&D director for Performance Monomers, Dr. Nelson is currently responsible for product and process engineering for acrylic monomers. He has held a number of other roles since joining Dow in 2006, including R&D director for both Energy Materials and Engineering Sciences in Corporate R&D. Prior to Dow, Dr. Nelson was associate department chair and associate professor (tenured) in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta in Canada. He was awarded the NSERC/Imperial Oil Associate Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Upgrading and was principal investigator for the Centre of Oil Sands Innovation. Alan holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University. 

About AIChE
AIChE is a professional society of more than 45,000 chemical engineers in 100 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security.www.aiche.org.

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