American Institute of Chemical Engineers

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemists and mechanical engineers. The mission of the AIChE student chapter at UCLA is to promote excellence in the Chemical Engineering Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Science by providing resources and support to the undergraduate students so that they can succeed academically and advance professionally. AIChE's vision is to provide value as the global leader of the chemical engineering profession and be the lifetime center for professional and personal growth. In 1908 a small group of chemical engineers formed a professional society to promote and improve chemical engineering as a discipline. At first, 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.

http://aiche.seas.ucla.edu/
aiche@ucla.edu

Signatories: Anya Khandpur, Anjali Chaparala, and May He

Advisor: Orlando Luna