Silly season story? No, it's serious at any time

At last, we thought, national recognition for chemical engineering as a profession. Headline status for chemical engineers and women chemical engineers at that. Alas, not so; at least not in the way we hoped. The TTA advertisement is, in fact, part of its admirable 'no-one forgets a good teacher' campaign. And Sunetra Berry is no longer working as a chemical engineer, but studying for Qualified Teacher Status and teaching full-time in Coniston.

In fairness to the TTA's copywriters, they do say that 'teaching isn't the only career that rewards both intellect and imagination.' Chemical engineering certainly does that. The latest salary survey published by the IChemE (see page 5) shows yet again that its members earn 'substantially more than other mainstream engineering disciplines'. Of course, the rewards offered by the teaching profession are altogether more intangible than high salaries. As the TTA asks in its advertisement: 'What else gives you the chance to influence hundreds of lives? Or job satisfaction that does not stop when you retire?' Well... chemical engineering for one.

We shouldn't need to list the industries and utilities that employ chemical and process engineers, nor the everyday commodities and essentials that rely on process engineering for their production. We shouldn't, but clearly some one has to if engineers like Sunetra Berry, with five years industrial experience behind her, are leaving the profession.

We might be preaching to the converted, but in just this one issue we have stories and articles about energy, chemicals, carpets (all on page 7); plant construction, pharmaceuticals, beer, the Millennium Dome (page 9); Alaskan oilfields and salmon breeding (not together, but separately on page 20); water supply and treatment (pages 25 and 27); laboratories and pumps (pages 29 and 31 onwards, respectively). Perhaps the layman could make a connection between a few of these topics and chemical engineering but all of them?