European Federation of Chemical Engineering : New leadership for a new decade

01-08-2010: The start of 2010 has brought changes at the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) with a new President and Executive Vice President taking office. The new officers bring a useful mix of industry and academic experience to the Federation.

Professor Richard Darton has succeeded Professor Jiri Drahos in the position of President. A Fellow of Keeble College, Darton currently heads the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford – a department that he established in 1991, following a successful career with Shell, in the Netherlands. Prominent in the international chemical engineering community, Darton has spent periods as a visiting lecturer at the Mendeleev University and Kurnakov Institute in Moscow and at the University of St. Petersburg. He has also worked at the University of Sydney, Australia and at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Darton is an Honorary Member of the Czech Chemical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a Past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. His research areas include dynamic surface effects at gas/liquid interfaces and he chaired the EFCE Working Party on Fluid Separations from 2001 – 2007. Darton is also a leading thinker in the concept of sustainable development.

Dr. Wridzer Bakker follows Professor John Garside in the position of Executive Vice President; he will assume the role of EFCE Treasurer. Bakker is recognised in the Dutch process industries as a forward thinking innovation practitioner. He currently leads the Dutch Separation Technologies Institute following a successful career with Akzo Nobel.

Darton and Bakker were both elected for a two year term at the EFCE General Assembly, held in Frankfurt in May 2009.