Aaron Low awarded travel fellowship

ICHEME Member Aaron Low has won the 2017 Earle Travel Fellowship. The award encourages New Zealand engineers and technologists in the early stages of their careers to travel abroad and expand their knowledge of the discipline so it can be applied to their work back home.

Low, an alumni of University of Waikato, where he gained a PhD in materials and process engineering, works at Ligar Polymers in New Zealand. He will use the fellowship funding to travel to the UK this year, where he will attend IChemE’s Explosion Science course. In 2018, Low will visit the US to attend a workshop on scale-up and commercialisation of emulsion polymers.

While in both countries he plans to visit a number of companies that Ligar Polymers is working with, as well as suppliers and university contacts.

“This funding will provide me with the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge [and] build new collaborative relationships. I can then bring that experience and knowledge back to New Zealand,” Low said.

He thanked his employer for supporting his application and the The Richard and Mary Earle Technology Trust for awarding him the fellowship.

IChemE New Zealand Board member Jenny Culliford, who sat on the Earle Travel Fellowship judging panel, said: “Aaron is a highly motivated professional who is a worthy recipient of this award. The judges were impressed by his maturity, his passion for engineering and commitment to his profession. We are confident that Aaron will derive significant benefits from the workshops and networking opportunities funded by the Fellowship.”

The Earle Travel Fellowship is open to young engineers working in product development and innovation management, or in process development in bioprocessing or food processing, who are members of IChemE, New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST), The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), or The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).