 Gloria
Chaw
Process Engineer
Chevron Research & Technology Company
Richmond, CA
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 B.S. - Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley |
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Process engineer at Chevron Research and Technology Company. |
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"I know a lot of
chemical engineers who have gone into the business side, who've gone to
computer areas. You're not limited." |
 
"The
team I'm on right now is lube process design. And so what we provide is
mass and energy balances and some piping initial implementation diagrams
and some reactor outlines, and general equipment specifications. I spend
most of my time at the computer, I guess doing the grunt work. But as we
are gaining more experience and then that will change and we'll have more
customer interactions and more opportunities to perhaps sell the
technology, give presentations."
"Right
now we have a lot of work with overseas customers. It's a really
international economy now and we're -- everywhere you're having more
international business. And it helps to know the customers and the
language of another culture."
Q: Do you spend a fair amount of time
traveling?
Chaw: I had the
opportunity to travel to China and I've also gone to Thailand. The trip to
China was for a kick-off meeting for one of my designs. At a kick-off
meeting, you just meet with your clients and you set your design basis. We
determine what size paper we're going to be using for the design, what we
are going to provide in the package, what the processing conditions are,
and what the feed rate is. After that, you can't make any changes, unless
you delay the project. So it's like a contract that we sign to set the
design basis at the beginning of the design. My trip to Thailand was for a
start-up. Chevron had licensed one of our hydrotreaters to Thailand and
they had built it. We were sent there as consultants to give them guidance
on how to start up the unit since this was the first time the unit was
going to be started up. We were also there to make sure that they operated
the unit properly so that if guarantees weren't met it wasn't because they
had made some mistakes and not followed Chevron's guidelines.
Q: What's the most rewarding thing
about being a chemical engineer?
Chaw: It's a dynamic
career, it's not monotonous. You don't do the same thing twice. You get to
work with a lot of dynamic people. Your fellow engineers, technicians, and
your international clients. It's an exciting work place. You don't feel
that it is boring because you're always learning something new.
Q: If you had to do it all over again,
would you still become a chemical engineer?
Chaw: I would do it
again. I like my job. It gives me the background to pursue other areas if
I want to. I know a lot of chemical engineers who have gone into the
business side, who've gone to computer areas. You're not limited.
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