Education: Science and Engineering - Finding the balance between man and the environment Engineers study the basis of everyday life, and are at the forefront of tackling the impact of our consumer society on the world's fragile ecosystem. By Sarah Jewell FOREIGN Edition

Victoria Garcia Sakai, 23, is doing a PhD in chemical engineering at Imperial College, London and she enjoys the subject because she sees it as "the basis for everything in everyday life. Without chemical engineers, you couldn't make anything". To be a good chemical engineer, she thin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndependent (London, England : 1986)
Main Author Jewell, Sarah
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 12.10.2000
Subjects
Jewell, Sarah
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0951-9467

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Summary:Victoria Garcia Sakai, 23, is doing a PhD in chemical engineering at Imperial College, London and she enjoys the subject because she sees it as "the basis for everything in everyday life. Without chemical engineers, you couldn't make anything". To be a good chemical engineer, she thinks you need to be "open-minded, because this is a discipline where you never work on your own - you are always working in groups and talking with people, you need to be good at communicating, very good at analysing problems, and you do have to be pretty good at maths." A strong background in maths and the sciences is usually a necessity for a degree, but the requirements are changing, as Professor Robert Pond from the department of engineering at Liverpool University explains: "Traditionally, engineering is based on physics and maths, but with changes in school education over the past 10 years, this is a diminishing pool, and fewer and fewer people are emerging with maths and physics at A-level, so we have had to adapt and sometimes accept people without strong results in maths and physics. We may then ask them to do a foundation course in engineering." Finding environmentally friendly ways of developing industry is a bedrock of engineering. Catalytic converters, lead-free petrol, reduced-sulphur diesel and new recycling technologies are all the result of chemical engineering, and as [Eileen Lawson] says: "We need to find a balance between the consumer's desire for more products at lower cost and the environmental impact. We need a sustainable future and work out our priorities."
ISSN:0951-9467