Hess Writes Leadership Book for Engineers, Scientists Professor Dennis Hess wants to help prepare engineers and scientists with the skills required for leadership roles. Not only has he developed a leadership course for chemical engineering majors, he also recently published his first book on the subject, Leadership by Engineers and Scientists: Professional Skills Needed to Succeed in a Changing World. Published by AIChE in association with Wiley, the book grew out of the leadership course Hess began teaching in recent years for both graduates and undergraduates after realizing that they could benefit from having some background in leadership as viewed through their technical background and mindset. He reflected on his time as a leader and how he, as a technical person, interacted with non-technical people and dealt with biases, values, priorities, and beliefs of individuals. “I realized that I think about
Fuller Publishes Electrochemical Engineering Text
level leadership positions,” he said. “And people in those positions deal with somewhat different types of problems than the ones you deal with early in your career.” The book is brief by design, fewer than 250 pages, with lots of references for more information. It is written as a textbook, with homework questions as well as many discussion questions and scenarios, and ways to think about some of the situations. Hess has things in a certain begun using the book in way. I interact his class and believes it mostly with techniwill be useful to others. cal people, and with “Anyone who is very few people considering or has outside the technirecently been placed in cal field. The biggest a leadership position issues you encounshould benefit from the ter are soft-skill perspective offered in this book,” issues,” he says. he says. After his second time teaching “If you aren’t in a formal leaderthe course, Hess decided to turn his ship position, it will help you to unclass notes and slides into his first derstand what your manager is gobook. “Leadership books are usuing through. And this should help ally written by MBAs because they you become a better employee.” are frequently the people in high-
Sholl Pens First Novel
David Sholl recently published a novel Polyphony, which Amazon describes as “a fast-paced Thomas Fuller has published novel confronting the Electrochemical Engineering challenges of modern (Wiley), a comprehensive drug discovery, the vital reference for scientists and nature of life-prolonging engineers working with medicines, and ultimately electrochemical processes and a the limits of knowledge.” rigorous textbook for students. Describing the book’s origins, Sholl explains, “I Merging theoretical concepts with widespread application, this book is designed to provide critical knowledge realized that I travel a lot, so I decided that instead in a real-world context. Beginning with the fundamental of reading a book or doing whatever else on a plane, that for a year or so I would try and write someprinciples underpinning the field, the discussion moves thing while I sat on planes. It ended up taking a bit into industrial and manufacturing processes that blend central ideas to provide an advanced understanding while more than a year, but that was the idea behind it, to see if I could do it.” explaining observable results. CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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