>> Kevin: I'm currently a principle chemical engineer.
I'm part of a process engineering group
that does product development
and process development for new chemistries,
new technologies that we wanna sell.
So our chemistry department and our research department,
comes up with new products, new solutions,
and then they send that over to us to kinda scale it up
on the manufacturing side.
So that's probably like a good 50% of my job.
And then the other part of my job,
is I'm looking at new innovations
for process engineering,
new technologies and tools
that we can bring into our plants
and then trying them out at a pilot plant.
>> Zoe: That's pretty neat.
>> Kevin: Yeah
>> Zoe: Was there anything about chemical engineering
that stuck out to you?
>> Kevin: And just in my first year of college,
I think I learned a lot more,
what chemical engineering actually was
as far as making products and manufacturing,
oil and gas and all that stuff.
And I was like, okay, that makes sense.
So when I graduated in 2012,
I really wanted to stay in Michigan.
It took me a month or so,
I didn't get a job until July after I got married,
but it ended up working out.
I got a job at A123 Systems,
doing some pretty cool stuff,
developing some cathode chemistry for lithium ion batteries.
So I learned a lot,
about just engineering, process engineering,
working out of a pilot plant.
But, that industry wasn't making a lot of money.
And the kind of the subsidies that we were getting
from the government were starting to wind down.
So I started looking for another place to work.
Within like six months,
I was able to get in at Henkel,
and which is a German manufacturer
of chemicals and chemistries
for automotive and home goods and a lot of different stuff.
And I worked there for two and a half years,
but then one of my friends from college,
and he became the pastor of the church
and he asked me to come help him with his church.
So then we packed up and moved to Minnesota.
And then I kind of tried
to find a new job here in Minnesota.
So I ended up at Ecolab
and that's where I'm still at currently.
We make soap, sanitizers,
all kinds of different cleaning products,
for your hands, for hospitals, for all kinds of fun stuff.
So, chemical engineering, I'm all the way,
and I really enjoy what I'm doing now.
So right now I work in a pilot plant,
that's part manufacturing, part pilot plant,
so that we're able to bring in new products,
scale them up and then test them out initially
on like a smaller manufacturing scale.
And then we do a lot of work with the plants nationwide
and around the world to kinda get it
to the full scale manufacturing plant,
close to the customers.
>> Zoe: So what is that like,
like taking a sample and then,
like you said, like bringing it up or scaling it up.
How is that process?
>> Kevin: Yeah, so that's, that's again, that's,
that's big part of my job.
So they,
so essentially the chemists will come to us saying,
hey, we were able to make this new product in a beaker
and it works exactly how we want it to work.
Now, can you manufacture it?
So, we'll start off on probably,
a five gallon scale and we'll just kinda see
how the chemistry works,
see how the process works as given from the chemist.
Most of the time,
it never works the same way and we have to tweak.
We either have to tweak the chemistry or tweak the process.
And then we just keep trying
to go up bigger and bigger and bigger
until we get to a point where we're at,
you know, tens of thousands of gallons
and able to make the same quality material.
>> Zoe: And how might you see your work,
making a difference in society?
>> Kevin: I think right now,
I think you can see it all over.
I think Ecolab especially,
just seeing Ecolab products are,
in any hospital you go to,
you're gonna see Ecolab hand sanitizer,
restaurant you go to,
hotels you go to.
I know that our products are everywhere helping people,
cleaning things,
keeping people safe,
working for a company that's dedicated to safety
and cleanliness to me, it's kinda like,
yeah, this is,
this is a good place to be right now.
>> Zoe: Yeah I'm sure.
Especially now.
>> Kevin: Yeah.
>> Zoe: All right, so now we're gonna move into a little more
of the like, nitty-gritty.
So, I'm gonna ask you to describe your typical workday.
So kind of from like waking up
to coming home and spending time with family, you know.
>> Kevin: Sure.
Zoe: What does a typical day in your life look like?
>> Kevin: Yeah, so
pre COVID-19,
it was,
you know, just wake up,
get to work seven, 7:30.
And most of my days, it's either,
I have an experiment
or I don't have an experiment.
So, on experimental days,
I have to go in a little bit earlier.
I'll meet up with my main operator
who's gonna be helping me throughout the day.
We'll kinda talk through what our experiments gonna be,
any risks,
for safety,
any risks for quality,
any kind of watch outs that we need to watch out for
as we're adding chemistry.
And then we just start through,
the mix instructions that I provided.
Usually I'll let the operator get everything set up
for an hour or so.
So then I can go back to my desk
and kinda just check my emails or whatever.
And then, usually around nine, 9:30,
I'm out there and we're working through our experiment,
collecting data, looking at different things,
taking pictures,
taking videos, seeing how it goes.
And then, as that experiment kind of wraps up,
I just kinda make sure everything went well
with the operator.
We have everything packaged up.
We have all the samples that we need.
And then all my materials that I need sent
for testing at the other building,
make sure those are sent properly,
and then for the most part my day is done.
On days that I don't have experiments,
I'm usually designing experiments.
I'm trying to think about what my next one is.
I'm evaluating a previous experiment.
I work on a process safety team,
so kind of throughout the week,
I'll be monitoring different process safety events
that may have happened or occurred in the plant.
And then I'll work with the process safety team
to make sure that we kind of investigate the problem
and figure out what's going on.
And then again,
another part of my time is working with vendors
on the innovation side of my work.
So, calling vendors,
making sure things are on schedule,
making sure I can get,
the test equipment in
or seeing if I can send them material
and they can test it there.
I'm working with our capital team
to make sure we have enough funding and budget
to test the materials.
So it's just kind of like on days
where I don't have experiments,
it's just a lot of either emails
or meetings with people throughout the day,
lunch, you know,
working on experiments throughout the day.
And then I'll wrap up usually around 3:30 or four
and then come home,
spend a couple hours with my family.
I do a lot of church work, so I'll do some,
some work here or there as needed.
I'm apartment manager of my apartment.
So if there's like leases that I have to work with,
I'll do something with that.
I'll mow the grass
or snowplow or vacuum,
bunch of just like miscellaneous stuff around
the apartment buildings that I have to do.
So, my days are pretty packed.
Most days,
once I'm done with that stuff,
then I'll come home, you know,
play around with the kids some more and put them to bed
and start all over again.
>> Zoe: Yeah.
You seem to have your hands pretty busy there.
So your plant really just has like a rolling line
of new technologies.
>> Kevin: Yep.
Yep, we're swapping things in and out all the times.
Everything we have is on wheels and,
you know, we were running out of space with all this,
like test equipment,
but yeah, we try to test things
as much as we can
and get them rolled out.
>> Zoe: That's pretty awesome.
>> Kevin: Yeah, it's pretty fun.
>> Zoe: So my next question is,
how did your time in college prepare you
or even not prepare you for your career?
>> Kevin: I would say,
definitely prepared me for my career
in a lot of different ways.
One being,
just how difficult it was
and how much of a grind it was.
I think that prepared me in a way,
to really excel because to me,
now that I'm working in a professional setting,
it's like nowhere near as hard as school.
So it's like if I work half as hard as I worked in school,
like I'm like,
excelling beyond all measures.
So to me it was just like,
college was just like this,
bootcamp of,
you know, this is like as hard as we can make it.
And now like,
all right, now you're just an expert in everything.
>> Zoe: Awesome.
>> Kevin: Yeah.
>> Zoe: And I think,
my last question is,
what advice would you give to someone
who doesn't really know
what their career looks like,
but is still pursuing, you know,
your chemical engineering track?
>> Kevin: I would say anyone that's pursuing chemical engineering,
just stick to it,
finish your degree.
Everything that you learn,
at Michigan in chemical engineering,
is gonna be able to help you
in any chemical engineering role.
So don't be discouraged about,
you know,
what type of products you're gonna be making
or chemistry you're gonna be making,
because I think you're gonna be well prepared
for what's coming at you and just,
as long as you find something in chemical engineering
you're gonna be well prepared.