The start of 2010 has brought changes at the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) with a new President and Executive Vice President taking office.  The new officers bring a useful mix of industry and academic experience to the Federation.

Professor Richard Darton has succeeded Professor Jiri Drahos in the position of President.  A Fellow of Keeble College, Darton currently heads the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford – a department that he established in 1991, following a successful career with Shell, in the Netherlands.  Prominent in the international chemical engineering community,  Darton has spent periods as a visiting lecturer at the Mendeleev University and Kurnakov Institute in Moscow and at the University of St. Petersburg. He has also worked at the University of Sydney, Australia and at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Darton is an Honorary Member of the Czech Chemical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.  He is a Past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.  His research areas include dynamic surface effects at gas/liquid interfaces and he chaired the EFCE Working Party on Fluid Separations from 2001 – 2007. Darton is also a leading thinker in the concept of sustainable development.

Dr. Wridzer Bakker follows Professor John Garside in the position of Executive Vice President; he will assume the role of EFCE Treasurer.  Bakker is recognised in the Dutch process industries as a forward thinking innovation practitioner. He currently leads the Dutch Separation Technologies Institute following a successful career with Akzo Nobel.

Darton and Bakker were both elected for a two year term at the EFCE General Assembly, held in Frankfurt in May 2009.

Dr. Hermann J. Feise will continue in the role of EFCE Scientific Vice-President for a further two years.  Feise is a Senior Research Manager in Particle Formulation and Handling, within the Process Engineering Department of BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Professor Darton believes that the new decade heralds an important period in the history of chemical engineering.  He said, “Evidence increasingly suggests that our widespread reliance on fossil fuels is releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that it is affecting the earth’s heat balance. Significant changes in our supply and usage of energy will be needed over the next few decades.”

EFCE exists to promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas between practising chemical engineers in Europe and internationally, through conferences and other meetings, and the activities of its Working Parties and Sections.  Darton has stressed the importance of this communal activity in addressing pressing international challenges:  “EFCE was formed in the very different world of 1953, but the need for international understanding and collaboration remains just as strong as ever. I believe that offering a platform for chemical engineers to meet and discuss different approaches to problems including climate change and to work together in pursuit of shared solutions remains the key role of the Federation and I am committed to taking this mission forward.”

Darton, Bakker and Feise will meet in Frankfurt during January 2010 along with the EFCE general secretariat to shape the Federations work programme for the coming decade.

The Federation’s mission statement can be downloaded at http://www.efce.info/efce_media/Bilder/Startseite/EFCE_Will-p-641.pdf