Chemicals are big business in Texas.
The state leads the industry in national employment and overall dollar production. Mannan previously was vice president and national program manager for process safety and risk management operations at RMT, Inc., a nationwide engineering services company, in Austin. The center was endowed in 1995 by Mike O'Connor of Houston whose wife died in a 1989 chemical complex explosion. The O'Connor center promotes education and training of engineering faculty, students and practitioners in all aspects of chemical process safety. His experience is wide ranging, from process design of chemical plants and refineries to computer simulation of engineering problems and mathematical modeling.