The Chemical Engineering Section of UTAS-Salalah organized two (2) webinars on “Chemical Engineer in Pharmaceutical Industry” and “Lucrative and Evergreen Chemical Engineer.”

The first webinar was presented in January by Mr. Balaji Sagadevan, Principal Engineer, in Alnylam Pharmaceutical Boston, USA. The webinar focused on the importance of chemical engineers throughout the research and development (R&D) to full-scale manufacturing and packaging. The speaker also emphasized the current challenges for chemical engineers to shape the future of the pharmaceutical industries.

The importance of chemical engineers in the development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products was given importance during the webinar. Chemical engineering graduates from the UTAS can work in different roles as they are needed at different stages and processes like research and development, product development, quality control, and manufacturing and production engineering.

Dr. R. Baskaran, Professor and Head of Chemical Engineering at St Joseph's College of Engineering, India, held another webinar on February 2, 2021. The speaker traced back from the industrial revolution using steam power to modern industrialization in the 19th and 20th century leading to rapid developments of automation and robotics.

As a chemical engineer, he also promoted working together to find solutions for sustainable growth, as green chemical engineering is the frontier for addressing the global challenges in resources, energy, and environment. He also emphasized the “Internet of Things” as the technology trends, therefore the chemical engineering graduates must know about intelligent systems that provide the backbone of the chemical processing technology.