In the early 1970s, Vladimir Haensel, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, became one of the first chemical engineers in the world to be elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Throughout his career, he has received many awards, the most prestigious being the National Medal of Science. In 1991, he became the first recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award for Chemistry in Service to Society. Heck, I'm 80 years old. And, based on my own experience, I don't think there is any relationship in one's professional life that is more important than having a mentor early in your life, having someone who is willing to spend time knowing what you already are, and challenging you to become the things you aren't. . .
Science is about amazement and curiosity and beauty.
And I tell them, if they have to take on some sort of project just to earn a paycheck some day, then they darn well better have another they are working on just for the joy of it. To have one project for the boss, if you will, but another for their chemical souls. It seems an almost outrageous core belief to be emanating from a man who spent most of his professional career working for one of the nation's corporate petro-chemical giants. Emigrating to the United States from Germany at the age of 16, Haensel received his B.S. in engineering from Northwestern University in 1935 and received a full scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed his master's degree in chemical engineering in 1937. UOP eventually assigned Haensel to work directly under Ipatieff at Northwestern and in the years that followed, Ipatieff was to become Haensel's mentor and life-long friend.