Greetings to all of you from the Chemical Engineering Deparmtent at BYU. We wish you the very best. This may sound like one of those trite, empty statements, but there is so much more to this expression than you may know. I'll elaborate a little.

One of my more enjoyable duties as department chair is to interview each of our seniors before they graduate. As part of that interview, I give them a little speech (some of you may remember) in which I ask them to keep in touch with us after they graduate. I ask them to keep us aware of their mailing address, so we can mail them this newsletter. I also request, "Send us an email message or a postcard once in a while to tell us then you've had a baby, received a new Chruch calling, gotten a promotion or a new job, or just to say, 'Hi.'" I explain to our seniors that they will always be part of our "family" and will always be important to us. Well, it's true, and that means all of you, whether you graduated last year, twenty years ago, or forty years ago. So drop us a note and tell us how you are.

By the way, one of the other things I ask our graduating students to do is to stop in and see us whenever they are in the area. Hapily, some actually do it. We have enjoyed the visits of members of our alumni during the past year, becuase they are back visiting family, taking a ski vacation, or dropping off a son or daughter at BYU or the MTC. These are some fun and rewarding times for us, and when we know that one of you is around, a number of the faculty come out of our offices to say hello and to visit.

Another opportunity for you to travel to BYU is for our annual Chemical Engineering Homecoming Banquet and Program. We are excited to announce the plans for the October 8, 1999 event, when our featured speaker will be Dr. Wilfred Griggs of the BYU Department of Ancient Scripture, who has spent years studying the writings, clothing, and other vestiges found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. Of course, there will also be awards, jokes, good-natured teasing, and fun for all. Come see former teachers and classmates, enjoy the night, and be enthralled by Dr. Griggs. There is also a formal announcement of the activity in this newsletter.

We are trying to formally establish another opportunity to see you at the National AIChE meeting. In past years, our faculty who attended the meeting met informally with a few of you for dinner or, when possible, a trip to the temple. This past year at the meeting in Miami, we held a more formal open house in the meeting hotel. The success of that activity encouraged us to hold such an open house on the Monday night of the meeting every year (sort of a department "Family Home Evening") and to attend the temple on Tuesday night, where possible. So, those of you planning to attend the AIChE meeting in Dallas this year, please join us on Monday, November 1 for the Open House and Tuesday, November 2 for the trip to the temple. This event is also announced inside this newsletter.

Speaking of alumni coming to visit, I sometimes talk with them about some of my concerns relating to placing our students in jobs and internships. I mentioned one of those concerns in my newsletter message a couple of years ago, mainly the problem caused by our geographical isolation and the tendency of companies to recruit and hire from universities near their facilities. While a number of you contacted us with some job notifications (we are grateful, so please don't stop), the problem is still a serious one for both internships and permanent hires. So when Ken Atwood ('77), John Ahn ('66), and Brenda (Anderson) Hunter ('95) visited us during the past month, they all had to endure my questions about what we might do. Actually, they all responded very supportively and made some good suggestions. Ken, in particular, thought I should ask you, our alumni, so there is the situation and the question:

Our students are great young people. They are very talented and capable (remember the unusaully-high ACT scores of BYU students in general). Furthermore, many have the unique additional feature of having lived in and spoken the language of another country for two years. This latter feature is particularly valuable to companies who need to interface with associates and/or customers in other countries. In many cases, these students (who now come largely from outside the intermountain west) live in areas where chemical engineering companies are located, but being a BYU student puts them at the disadvantage of not studying at one of the "target schools" for those companies. Anyway, the question is: How can we overcome the geographic isolation of BYU and "market" our students to companies around the country and the world?

I look forward to your responses. Meanwhile, very best wishes from your department family.

--Ken Solen