The mission of the Minnesota Student Chapter of AIChE is to promote excellence in Chemical Engineering by providing a diverse environment in which the student can succeed academically and advance professionally.
AIChE's vision is to provide value as:
- The global leader of the chemical engineering profession.
- The lifetime center for professional and personal growth.
- The foremost catalyst in applying chemical engineering expertise in meeting societal needs.
Our chapter was founded in 1928 and is part of the North Central region.
History
"...the noblest aim before us, gentlemen, the one which most amply justifies us before all the world, is our ambition for the enlightenment and ample equipment of our successors: that is for the improvement of the training of the chemical engineer of the future."
Charles McKenna, spoken during the keynote address at the foundation of AIChE in 1908
In 1908 a small group of chemical engineers formed a professional society to promote and improve chemical engineering as a discipline.
At first this group, called the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) met with strong resistance, especially from the American Chemical Society (ACS), which claimed control over all pure and applied chemistry in the United States.
In response AIChE adopted a number of conservative measures, including strict membership criteria to keep membership low and avoid competition with ACS.
Nonetheless the value of AIChE was realized by the entire discipline in 1925, when chemical engineering became the first profession to use scholastic accreditation to ensure the consistency and quality of academic chemical engineering courses.
The conservative attitude paid off when peace was made between ACS and AIChE around 1930. The membership criteria were lifted and chemical engineers joined in droves.
Today AIChE remains the principal chemical engineering professional society in the United States. Currently about 57,000 (~70%) of American chemical engineers are members.
