Chemical Processing Editorial Board

Oct. 11, 2021

The editors of Chemical Processing meet with members of the editorial board four times a year to discuss best practices, key trends, developments and successful applications. We've published many articles based on the board's recommendations including:

Fred Gregory, a 39-year veteran in the chemical industry, serves as the Process Safety & Risk Manager for the Deer Park and Bayport sites at Lubrizol Corporation.

For the past decade, he has been involved with process safety, where his insights have contributed significantly to the enhancement of safety protocols and risk management strategies.

Fred's industry journey includes roles at Hercules and Ethyl Corporation. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.


 

Rachelle Howard is an Associate Director of automation and controls for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Boston.  She has worked on advancing the automation of Pharmaceutical Continuous Manufacturing since 2014. She has led projects in continuous system improvements, implementation of a data historian and major system upgrades, including all aspects from process troubleshooting, solution design, change control procedures, implementation and validation. Her work incorporates knowledge of SCADA, PLC, Data Management and PAT Management systems.

Prior to Vertex, Rachelle worked at Sanofi Genzyme for five years on biologics manufacturing in process and automation roles implementing process and system improvements working on the DeltaV DCS system. During graduate school, she also worked in a cogeneration power plant and supported work with Control Station, a loop tuning and process performance monitoring software company.

Rachelle has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and an MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut. She was named to the 2018 class of Influential Women in Manufacturing— a Putman Media (Chemical Processing's former parent company) program that shines a light on the importance of careers in science, technology, engineering and math.


 

Phil Kaiser, cyber defense analyst at Dow Chemical Company, has more than a decade of experience in the chemical industry, with a strong foundation in process automation engineering. He served as part of the operations at the EO/EG facility at Seadrift Operations within Dow. Here, he served as advanced process control engineer and process automation engineer, contributing to the supervisory control system, commercial control system, and safety system.

The past six years in TES projects group in Freeport, Texas, a role that allowed him to support facilities spanning the Gulf Coast from Saint Charles, Louisiana, to Seadrift, Texas.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the esteemed Michigan Technological University.


 

Darren Moroziuk is currently the manager of manufacturing support for Pfizer in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished pharmaceuticals in the United States, Canada and Singapore. He started his career in the quality control lab of Apotex, a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Toronto, and then worked at the QC lab of Patheon, another pharmaceutical maker there. He joined Pfizer in 2001 in a quality assurance role and moved to Kalamazoo to support API operations. In 2004, he went to Singapore for six months to take part in the start-up of the new Pfizer Tuas API facility there. Upon returning to Kalamazoo, he began a new career in production operations, supporting organic synthesis involving highly toxic chemistry, an experience that has provided valuable knowledge about containment and risk mitigation.

Darren is now using his experience to lead master planning strategy and capital project prioritization for the Pfizer Kalamazoo API site.

Darren holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, and a master’s in chemistry from Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.


 

Julie K. O’Brien, corporate sustainability manager at Air Products, is responsible for integrating sustainability into company businesses and work processes, working closely with Air Products’ Sustainability Council and senior managers to develop and achieve the company’s sustainability strategy.

Julie joined Air Products in 1986 as a participant in the company’s Career Development Program with an initial assignment in manufacturing at the company’s chemical facility in Pasadena, Texas. She subsequently moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, as a process engineer supporting chemicals manufacturing. In 1993 she became manager of Air Products’ Environmental Technology Group. She joined Corporate Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) in 1996 as manager of Responsible Care. After several years, she became the manager of corporate public relations, primarily supporting risk and crisis communications. In 2000 she returned to EH&S in the company’s Product Safety department, where she managed global regulatory compliance and product risk assessments.

Julie received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University.


 

Ellen Turner is the director of strategic marketing and business development for Andronaco Industries, a manufacturer of specialty, corrosion-resistant fluid handling and sealing products specifically designed for chemical, pharmaceutical and ultra-pure related industries. Ellen has utilized her chemical engineering degree and MBA for over 25 years in technology, manufacturing, technical service and strategic marketing roles in the specialty chemicals and materials industry. Her experiences include building and construction, pharmaceutical intermediates, wood products, sustainability, medical plastics, adhesives and hygiene. As marketing director of sustainability at Synthomer, she championed the development of the first portfolio of sustainability projects, initiated the certification of all divisional processing sites, and developed the first corporate branding strategy for sustainable feedstock solutions. While at Eastman Chemical Company, she became a thought leader in chemical resistance of plastics, specifically how plastics interact with disinfectants and drugs in the healthcare environment affecting patient and clinician safety. She was the 2017 recipient of the Eastman Everest Award in Marketing for her work in the medical plastics market as a pioneer in behavioral marketing and for her creative use of digital media to drive change. She has been involved in the Healthcare Surfaces Institute since 2019, co-leading the initial committee to create the first material testing standard for disinfectant resistance, serving on the Education Committee, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors.


 

David Vickery is a director in the product management organization at Aspen Technology, Inc. He has over 30 years of experience in the development and use of process simulation tools for chemical process design and simulation. At Aspen Technology, Vickery oversees the Next Generation Digital Twins products within the Performance Engineering Suite.

Prior to joining Aspen Technology, Vickery was a manufacturing and engineering technology fellow of The Dow Chemical Company. At Dow, Vickery led the process development, modeling and optimization expertise area within Dow’s process engineering group. In that role, Vickery was responsible for managing the software tools that Dow uses for process simulation and physical property modeling. Additionally, he led a team of individuals who provide process modeling technology and support for that technology. Vickery also supported leadership development programs within Dow’s operations learning and talent development organization.

Prior to joining Dow, Vickery was a process simulation developer at ChemShare Corporation and Aspen Technology, Inc. He also served as a lead project engineer for Real-Time Optimization projects with Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation prior to its acquisition by Aspen Technology. Vickery received his B.S, M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University of Potsdam, New York.

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