Chemical engineers, student leaders, and professionals at all career stages are at the heart of AIChE’s mission to advance the profession and make a lasting impact on society. In this series, we spotlight members whose passion, leadership, and service help shape the future of chemical engineering while strengthening the AIChE community.
This month, we’re excited to introduce Adam Tobin-Williams, AIChE Executive Student Committee (ESC) Chair and student at Johns Hopkins University. The ESC is the Institute’s only student-run committee, and it seeks to help Student Chapters get the most out of AIChE and provides a variety of resources and programming opportunities for Student Chapter leaders. In his role as Chair, he manages over 100 student members to improve inter-chapter connections and provide opportunities globally. In his former role as President of the Johns Hopkins AIChE Student Chapter, Adam led dozens of events each semester while mentoring new leaders and launching initiatives, such as a ChemE Jeopardy team, a mentorship program, and an awards application process. Below, Adam shares what inspired him to take on leadership, how he balances academics with chapter responsibilities, and the rewarding moments that have shaped his AIChE journey.
Can you share your background and what led you to take on a leadership role in your AIChE Student Chapter?
I'm a chemical and biomolecular engineering major at Johns Hopkins with additional majors in applied mathematics and statistics, and in economics. I'm interested in a broad spectrum of work, including molecular dynamics simulations, reinforcement learning, and labor economics. I'm driven by that primal human quality that sets us apart: curiosity. And I allow it to pull me towards my goal of supporting my community and world. For AIChE, that curiosity drove me to take on the treasurer and then president positions in my sophomore and junior years, respectively. In these roles, I could learn organization and leadership while mentoring new leaders and bringing dozens of events to my chapter. That experience ultimately led to my current role as AIChE Executive Student Committee Chair, where I continue to help connect and empower student leaders.
How do you manage your responsibilities with your role in leading your AIChE Student Chapter?
It's all about planning and delegation. Our chapter puts on over three dozen events each semester, with everything from Jeopardy recruitment to industry coffee chats and poster sessions to lawn days, and it's far more than a single person can oversee. A leader needs to understand and trust their team while giving them resources and support when they need it. Sometimes a strong hand is needed to ensure deadlines are met, but your other board members should have the freedom to conduct their events how they want. I strike a balance between my AIChE responsibilities, research, teaching, taking classes, and my other extra-curricular activities by planning event ideas far in advance and providing plenty of time to fill in details after rooms and orders are secured. Those same principles of planning, delegation, and trust now guide my work at the Executive Student Committee level, where I support student leaders across many chapters.
Can you share some of the most rewarding moments or milestones you've helped your Student Chapter achieve?
I think the clear successes of our new initiatives have been incredibly rewarding, knowing that I took a key part in them. Looking back on my time as chapter president, three efforts stand out: the refounding of our ChemE Jeopardy team, the establishment of an inter-undergraduate mentorship program, and starting an awards application process with AIChE.
I poked around on the AIChE website and found that they had a ChemE Jeopardy competition in just my freshman year, so I assembled a team of sophomores and a senior to compete with me in the regional competition. Despite only studying the night before, we qualified for nationals! Every year since then, we've increased our team size and abilities, and now we have a fantastic shot at the crown.
For our mentorship program, I thought there was a tragic lack of interaction between upper- and lowerclassmen that could be mended, so we opened a mentorship program to wide excitement. Ninety percent of the freshmen signed up and are learning how to be a student at Hopkins.
Finally, we started an internal application process to allow students to apply for the national awards, like the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship and the First and Second Year Student Recognition Awards. Now, as Executive Student Committee Chair, I find it equally rewarding to see those kinds of initiatives happening across other chapters and to play a part in helping them succeed.
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