Rice Offers Chemistry Class to Petrochemical Executives

CONTACT: Philip Montgomery

PHONE: (713) 831-4792


E-Mail: pmontgom@rice.edu

RICE OFFERS CHEMISTRY CLASS TO PETROCHEMICAL EXECUTIVES

Mix some Rice chemistry professors with Houston
businessmen, throw in some graduate students, and you’ve got a new class for
managers in the petrochemical business who want to learn more about basic
chemistry in their industry.

The Office of Executive Development (OED) of Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate
School of Administration and the Department of Chemistry are offering the class
titled “Managerial Chemistry: Business Implications of Chemical Processes for
Executives” June 2-7.

The course is aimed at mid- to upper-level managers in the petrochemical
industry who lack strong backgrounds in chemistry and are involved in legal,
human resources, production, sales, marketing, accounting and other aspects of
the petrochemical industry. The course is also the first interdisciplinary
effort for OED.

Andrew R. Barron, professor of chemistry and materials science, and Marco
Ciufolini, associate professor of chemistry, will teach the six-day course.

“Managerial Chemistry” is a combination of lectures, discussions and lab work
that will provide background on raw materials such as crude oil and natural gas
liquids, building blocks such as olefins and alkanes, and derivatives such as
polymers and plastics.

Each manager will be expected to solve problems daily and to work oneon -one
with an assigned graduate student, who will serve as a tutor. For the most part,
the problems will be drawn from real-life situations involving the petrochemical
industry.

“The Chemistry Department is in a unique position at Rice because Houston is
the center of the chemical industry in the United States,” Barron said. “It
seemed [the Chemistry Department] was in an ideal position and able to provide a
service to the chemical community in teaching chemistry.”

For more information call Philip Montgomery in the Rice News Office at (713)
831-4792. For more information about Rice’s Office of Executive Development see:
<http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~jgs/pages/executive.html>.

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