One Liner
From Joe Sauer, PhD - speaking at Chemistry Banquet.
"There are three kinds of people. Those that know math and those that don't know math."
April 27, 2003
Opportunity
On Friday night April 26, 2003 I attended the Chemistry Department Banquet at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. The speaker was Dr. Joe Sauer of Albemarle Corporation, a global supplier of specialty chemicals and chemical intermediates based in Baton Rouge, LA. Dr. Sauer is a SWOSU chemistry graduate.
Before getting into his topic on biofilms, Dr. Sauer passed out advice for the graduating chemistry seniors and all chemistry students present. It is good advice because it is practical "real life" advice and it brought back nostalgic memories of my own career in industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. The most memorable part for me is a quote of Thomas Edison about opportunity.
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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Alva Edison
While not claiming to never missing an opportunity, I pride myself in being ready to put on gloves and coveralls and hard hat and go out in the field and try things out. At my chemical plant, I frequently used a 5-gallon pail to tote thermometers, pressure gauges, sample valves, wrenches, research notebooks and so on. I got a nickname of "the bucket chemist."
Though the closest description of my field based on college training is "inorganic chemist," I jokingly call myself a "physical chemist." By 'physical' I mean I often use my muscles - I' m not always in the lab doing test-tube work. Also I don't care what field I use to solve problems in my assignments. At various times I've used biology, soil mechanics, hydrology, geology and on and on. The willingness to be versatile like this was another point made by Dr. Sauer to the students.
As a closing thought related to opportunity, I think of Jerry's e-mail signature quote.
-
"Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get."
I can brag about a number of engineering accomplishments by me that fit this dictum. And most times the way to success is putting on coveralls and doing a lot of work to get the idea into practice.
On Friday night April 26, 2003 I attended the Chemistry Department Banquet at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. The speaker was Dr. Joe Sauer of Albemarle Corporation, a global supplier of specialty chemicals and chemical intermediates based in Baton Rouge, LA. Dr. Sauer is a SWOSU chemistry graduate.
Before getting into his topic on biofilms, Dr. Sauer passed out advice for the graduating chemistry seniors and all chemistry students present. It is good advice because it is practical "real life" advice and it brought back nostalgic memories of my own career in industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. The most memorable part for me is a quote of Thomas Edison about opportunity.
-
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Alva Edison
While not claiming to never missing an opportunity, I pride myself in being ready to put on gloves and coveralls and hard hat and go out in the field and try things out. At my chemical plant, I frequently used a 5-gallon pail to tote thermometers, pressure gauges, sample valves, wrenches, research notebooks and so on. I got a nickname of "the bucket chemist."
Though the closest description of my field based on college training is "inorganic chemist," I jokingly call myself a "physical chemist." By 'physical' I mean I often use my muscles - I' m not always in the lab doing test-tube work. Also I don't care what field I use to solve problems in my assignments. At various times I've used biology, soil mechanics, hydrology, geology and on and on. The willingness to be versatile like this was another point made by Dr. Sauer to the students.
As a closing thought related to opportunity, I think of Jerry's e-mail signature quote.
-
"Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get."
I can brag about a number of engineering accomplishments by me that fit this dictum. And most times the way to success is putting on coveralls and doing a lot of work to get the idea into practice.
