Inaugural lecture Prof F. Picchioni: Where the rubber meets the road: from molecules to products

Chair: Chemical Product Engineering

Faculty: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Product Engineering is a relatively new discipline aiming at the development of new (or improved) chemical products satisfying costumer requirements. Chemical Product Engineering deals specifically with chemical products, i.e. with products for which the chemical structure has a clear, direct and recognizable relationship with the performance of such products. The engineering character of the research in this discipline as well as the applicability of the corresponding results at industrial level constitutes two relevant point of attention. Indeed, chemical products are complex systems (at three different length scales) and such complexity exerts a clear influence on the nature of the scientific research performed. In particular, the incorporation of product requirements (i.e. what should the product do? what properties should it have to fulfill its function?) into the research strategy is crucial in this case and at the origin of this complexity. This is then the moment of truth (“where the rubber meets the road”) as it defines the main engineering character of the academic research performed in this field.

Chemical Product Engineering is currently embedded into two curricula at the University of Groningen: Chemical Engineering and Industrial Engineering and Management. Education activities in Chemical Product Engineering should provide students with the basic knowledge and, more prominently, with the relevant academic skills needed in their future career. Besides a correct implementation strategy for such skills in both curricula, the assessment forms should be adjusted to clearly reflect, among others, the unpredictability that newly engineering graduates will find in their future career.

Register by mail: oraties@rug.nl  Stating information Inaugural lecture, name and address and number of requested seats in Aula or Corona (Corona professors only)