After 36 years of outstanding service to the University of Utah, chemical engineering professor Edward Trujillo will be retiring in January 2017.
During Trujillo’s career at the university he had many accomplishments. However, his favorite is “being part of a group that founded Utah MESA, which is a program in the public schools that encourages women and underrepresented youth to consider careers in the STEM fields.”
This involved developing a consortium of members of the Utah minority community, Utah industrial professionals, Utah universities and colleges, and the Utah public school system. All work together toward a common goal of increasing the diversity in higher education, particularly in the sciences, technological fields and in engineering.
The professor graduated with a master’s degree from Caltech and a doctorate from the University of Utah and then went to work in industry. His career includes working nine years for Marathon Oil Company and one year with Kimberly-Clark Corporation. He started his academic career with the university in 1984, working in the research areas of biosorption, acid rock drainage and mammalian cell culture.
In addition to research and teaching, Trujillo was active in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was elected a fellow in 2013. He also received the award for AIChE’s Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor, the U’s Diversity Award, the Outstanding Service Award from the College of Engineering, and the President’s Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, to name just a few.
He taught 12 different chemical engineering classes at the U and was faculty advisor to six Ph.D. chemical engineering students (four completing their degree), 14 MS students, five ME students and 15 students completing a bachelor’s thesis degree.
“I’ve been fortunate to have the support and understanding of my wife and children all these years throughout my career at the university,” he said.
We’ll miss him and are deeply grateful for his service at the University of Utah. Please join us in congratulating him on his retirement and wishing him well on the next phase of his journey.
Article taken from The Mixing Cup 2016.