Meet Roxy Schneider – Featured YP for June 2010

Roxy Schneider is ChEnected's Featured Young Professional for the month of June 2010. Roxy graduated in 2008 with a degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University, where she served as AIChE student chapter president. In the two years since then, she has worked as Project Engineer and Operations Leader for AIChE's Center for Chemical Process Safety. Her current interests include risk assessment, inherently safer design, risk based process safety management. In the future she hopes to use her chemical engineering degree to save the world. She hopes to accomplish this by in some way helping to scale up new technologies and do so in a safe and responsible manner. Below is my recent interview with Roxy:

Lowell: Where are you from?

Roxy: Proudly born and raised in the great city of Hoboken, NJ. (Also the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, baseball, and Oreo cookies).

Lowell: Where did you complete / are you completing your chemical engineering education?

Roxy: I graduated from Princeton University with a BSE in Chemical Engineering in 2008.

Lowell: How long have you been a member of AIChE?

Roxy: I was first a student member in 2006 and became a full member in 2008.

Lowell: What company/institution do you work for?

Roxy: AIChE's The Center for Chemical Process Safety.

Lowell: Describe a recent challenge you managed, notable achievement, or obstacle you overcame at your job or in your work as an AIChE member?

Roxy: CCPS was running a conference in Sao Paulo that was originally scheduled for June of last year and I was in charge of the technical programming. The cultural differences and language barriers were a challenge and on top of that, the organization that was co-organizing with us decided to postpone the conference at the last minute. Luckily our authors and volunteers were really flexible about the change and now we're all really looking forward to the rescheduled conference which will take place later this month.

Lowell: What do you do to meet people in your field?

Roxy: I've met a number of fellow ChemE's through the NY local section of AIChE. I like the meetings because I get to meet cool people and I get a chance to think about chemical engineering related topics that I don't normally get to think about at work.

Lowell: Tell us a little bit about yourself... What is one of your hobbies? How do you spend your spare time? What's your favorite place to travel? Or anything else you'd like to share...

Roxy: In general I have a lot of energy, so I like running, riding my bike over crazy hills, and schooling people on the basketball courts in my neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. To relax I play guitar even though I'm pretty bad at it (at least that's what my roommates say). I also proudly do my part to help the economy of New York by patronizing many of the local bars and restaurants. It's tough work but someone's got to do it!

Comments

Ahra Kwon's picture

Congratulations! I enjoyed reading this entry specifically because I've been involved in a process safety internship this summer with PPG Industries. I am a fellow chemical engineer and feel that process safety is a vital aspect to any engineering field but specifically to chemical engineering. Process safety is what will keep a company in business to it's best and most safe potential. I also feel process safety has a vital humanitarian impact especially looking back on all the incidents in history occuring from process safety management failure. Engineering and humanity have such a strong connection and process safety is the bridge that links the two together.

Roxy's picture

Ahra, are you still a student? If you are, you should definitely check out the process safety certificate program available through the SACHE program on <a href="http://www.sache.org" target="_blank">www.sache.org</a>. And if you&#039;re at PPG full time, you should check out the resources The Center for Chemical Process Safety has. PPG is a corporate member, so you&#039;d be entitled to join any project subcommittee you would like! <a href="http://www.aiche.org/ccps" target="_blank">www.aiche.org/ccps</a>

Ahra Kwon's picture

Roxy, yes! I am still a student. I will definitely check out the process safety certificate program, thanks for the suggestion. I am only interning at PPG as of now, but this opportunity may lead me into a full time position with PPG. Thanks for your recommendations! And congratulations again!