American Institute of Chemical Engineers

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. The AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemists and mechanical engineers.

As of 2005, AIChE had about 40,000 members, including members from 93 countries worldwide. Student chapters at various universities around the world have also been established. The student chapters tend to focus on providing networking opportunities in both academia and in industry as well as increasing student involvement locally and nationally.

AIChE's technical divisions and forums

Divisions and forums provide technical information, programming for AIChE’s technical meetings, and awards and recognition to outstanding chemical engineers in their area of expertise. They also provide opportunities for affiliation with top engineers in the general disciplines as well as in emerging fields like [biotechnology] and sustainability.

This is a list of the divisions and forums:

• Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (CRE)
• Computational Molecular Science & Engineering Forum (CoMSEF)
• Computing & Systems Technology Division (CAST)
• Environmental Division (ENV)
• Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division (FP&BE)
• Forest Products Division (FP)
• Fuels & Petrochemicals Division (F&P)
• Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD)
• Nanoscale Science Engineering Forum (NSEF)
• North American Mixing Forum (NAMF)
• Nuclear Engineering Division (NE)
• Particle Technology Forum (PTF)
• Process Development Division (PD)
• Safety & Health Division (S&H)
• Separations Division (SEP)
• Sustainable Engineering Forum (SEF)
• Transport and Energy Processes Division (TEP)

Membership grades

The AIChE has four grades of membership as listed below (ranging from the highest grade to the lowest grade):

• Fellow
• Senior Member
• Member
• Student member

The prerequisite qualifications for election to any of the membership grades are available in the AIChE Bylaws.

Joint initiatives with industry, academia and others

As new technology is developed, there is a need for experts to collaborate to achieve common goals. The AIChE plays a major role through joint initiatives with industry, academia and others.

• Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS): CCPS is a non-profit, corporate membership organization within AIChE that addresses process safety within the chemical, pharmaceutical, and petroleum industries. It is a technological alliance of manufacturers, government agencies, consultants, academia and insurers dedicated to improving industrial process safety. CCPS has developed over 100 publications relevant to process safety.

• Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS): DIERS was formed in 1976 by a group of 29 companies that developed methods for the design of emergency relief systems to handle runaway reactions. Currently, 232 companies participate in the DIERS Users Group to cooperatively implement, maintain and improve the DIERS methodology for the design of emergency relief systems including reactive systems.

• Design Institute for Physical Properties (DIPPR): DIPPR collects, correlates and critically evaluates thermophysical and environmental property data. If needed property values are not found in the literature, they may be measured in DIPPR projects and subsequently added to the DIPPR databases. DIPPR disseminates their information in publications, computer programs and databases on diskettes and online.

• Safety and Chemical Engineering Education Program (SACHE) : The SAChE program, initiated in 1992, is an initiative between the CCPS and engineering universities to provide teaching materials about process safety for educating undergraduate and graduate students studying chemical and biochemical engineering. The materials can also be used for training in industrial settings. The SAChE leadership committee is composed of representatives from academia and industry as well as AIChE staff.

• Institute for Sustainability (IFS): The mission of IFS is assist professionals, academes, industries, and governmental entities contributing to the advancement of sustainability and sustainable development. The primary goal of the IFS is to promote the societal, economic, and environmental benefits of sustainable and green engineering.