Meet Seth Gottlund—Featured Student for January

What is your name? Seth Gottlund Where are you from? Kutztown, Pennsylvania What school do you go to? What year are you? Lafayette College, Senior Do you hold any positions in your AIChE chapter or with AIChE nationally? Co-President of Lafayette College AIChE, Mid-Atlantic Regional Liaison Describe an event in your chapter that you are most proud to have been involved with. Last year Lafayette's Chapter of AIChE hosted the first annual Lafayette ChemE Cookoff where four teams of ten students and one professor cooked three dishes that were judged by other ChemE faculty and students. What are your plans after graduation? In what field are you most interested in having an impact? I am going to be an engineer in the Career Development Program at Air Products & Chemicals Inc. Which of your undergraduate classes have you most enjoyed? I have really enjoyed Experimental Design 1 and 2 at Lafayette. Lafayette is very unique in the fact that as ChemE's we have a two year lab experience. During EDI and EDII (fall and spring of junior year) you get exposed to a lot of unit operations that are present in the chemical engineering industry. Not only that, but you have to write reports, memos, and give presentations throughout both classes, which is excellent preparation for industry and academia. Having the practical lab experience made me feel very prepared during both of my internships at Air Products & Chemicals. How did you decide to pursue a degree in ChE? I think I decided on chemical engineering because there are so many different things that you can do with a degree in chemical engineering. Originally I was unsure of what I wanted to do after graduation, and having a wide array of options after graduation seemed very appealing to me. At the time I also knew I enjoyed math and chemistry, so chemical engineering seemed like the right path to take. What is the best kept secret on your campus? One of the dorms, South College, has piano and instrument practice rooms in the basement. Not many people know about it and you can go and play the pianos that are in the practice rooms, or you can bring your own instrument to play. What are you most looking forward to after graduation? I am really looking forward to expanding my horizons and hopefully getting to do a bit of traveling before I start working. I have been abroad numerous times and I want to go to new places and experience different cultures. I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, and I would love to go back and visit the friends I made and experience Madrid all over again. What will you be most saddened to leave behind at school when you move on? When I leave school I think I will definitely miss all of my friends. I think the friendships that I have made over the last four years will last a life time, and it is hard to think that I won't get to see all of the people that I have gotten to know and love every single day. I think I will also miss the college lifestyle. The past two summers I've had internships, and working a 9am-5pm job is tough! At school you get breaks during the day, which is very nice. What is the most unexpected thing you have been asked in an interview? I was once asked to describe a situation where I was unsuccessful at meeting the criteria that I set out to achieve. It was a tough question to answer, but I made sure to turn the negatives into positives and explain how I learned from my mistakes. Do you have any advice to incoming students and underclassmen ChEs around the world? I think when I came into chemical engineering I didn't realize the importance of building a network. It's something that every ChemE should do from day one. You can start by building your network at school with other students (especially upperclassmen) as well as the professors. As you go through school make sure to seize every opportunity to build your professional network outside of your school and get your name out there! What's your first thought when you wake up in the morning? Is it Friday? If your initials (first/last or first/middle/last) stood for something other than your name, what would it be? Super Smart Globetrotter How would you like to be involved with AIChE after graduation? I would like to be involved in the Young Professionals of AIChE. You can contact Seth through his LinkedIn profile.

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