Peter Ashman helms Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers

PETER ASHMAN is the new Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers (ANZFChE).

Ashman, who is a Fellow of IChemE, will serve as Chair for a year until September 2022. ANZFChE has joint membership from five institutions including IChemE, the Engineers Australia Chemical College Board, and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).

ANZFChE was formed in 1997 to provide a forum for discussion between the institutions; promote the profession in Australia and New Zealand for the benefit of the community, the environment, industry and members; develop joint position papers; and attract new students to the profession.

“As Chair of the Australian New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers I am committed to the ongoing success of chemical engineering in our region,” Ashman said.

He is a Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials at the University of Adelaide and senior member of the university’s Centre for Energy Technology. His current research interests include hydrogen production technologies, biomass, bioenergy and solar thermal energy. He is currently working to understand how the performance of appliances and systems are changed when switched to mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas to underpin the safe rollout of hydrogen blending projects across Australia. And he previously assessed the use of solar technology to produce alumina and worked to develop new technologies for solar gasification.

“I’ve found it amazing how businesses and organisations have responded during this global pandemic. Rapidly transforming how they deliver core business while re-evaluating existing paradigms. For me the pandemic has reinforced the importance of our professional networks and, in Australia and New Zealand, the critical contribution that networking plays in the success of our annual chemical engineering conference, Chemeca.”