On December 17, the Quebec government published the list of university programs that would benefit from the Perspective Quebec scholarship program to combat the labor shortage. All engineering programs offered by Polytechnique Montréal were included in this list except for three: aerospace, biomedical and chemical engineering.
As a second year chemical engineering student at Polytechnique Montreal, I argue that chemical engineers are needed more than ever and are also affected by the labor shortage. It is a serious mistake that chemical engineering was not selected by the Perspectives Québec scholarship program.
An unknown genius
Chemical genius is in your ketchup, in your computer, in your book, in your moisturizer, in your bowl of ice cream, in your pot of ibuprofen, in your car, and in the gasoline you put in it. You got it right, making 99.9% of the items around you probably involved a chemical engineer. These professionals, also called process engineers, are trained to be able to carry out processes for transforming materials on an industrial scale while protecting the public, in a context of sustainable development. They are everywhere and they are essential.
In the midst of a pandemic, once bacteriologists and immunologists succeeded in making a vaccine against COVID-19, it was chemical engineers who worked to design a process to produce the vaccines on a global scale, and as quickly as possible, while ensuring the quality and safety of each dose.
A chemist or not, the work of an engineer is a team effort. The ores extracted in mines, thanks to geological and mining engineers, must undergo a series of complex unit operations (a process) before constituting an object that can be used. The manufacturing and recycling processes of materials are designed and optimized by process engineers. Without them, most building materials would not be available for civil, mechanical, electrical and industrial engineers to do their jobs.
A genius of the future
Traditionally, chemical engineers have been involved in petrochemicals and metallurgy, two of the most greenhouse gas emitting industries today. So why, in the midst of a climate crisis, do we need chemical engineers? Because they are the ones who can reduce the environmental impact of these polluting processes and develop solutions that will allow us to get out of this dependence on hydrocarbons.
Every day, around the world, thousands of chemical engineers invest in the development of lithium batteries, green hydrogen and biofuels.
Others are instead doing research on new, greener plastic materials, biotechnologies and waste recovery processes. There are many who dedicate their careers to the fight against climate change.
Two strong market trends, decarbonization (for example, the electrification of transport) and artificial intelligence can propel Québec’s economic development. We fully understand the government’s interest in increasing the workforce in the fields of construction and information technology. However, all the natural resources like copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths needed to make electric motors, batteries and electronic devices cannot be exploited without the processes designed by chemical engineers.
Avoid a big mistake
Thanks to the $ 20,000 granted by the Perspective Québec scholarship program1, an industrial engineering student would earn $ 8,000 net during his bachelor’s degree instead of spending $ 12,000 like a chemical engineering student2. Now put yourself in the shoes of a student leaving CEGEP who must choose his field of engineering. What he will see is “do you want to go into debt or get paid to study?” For a student who doesn’t really know any of these geniuses yet, the choice is clear: $ 20,000. What I fear is that there is no longer anyone who chooses chemical engineering.
The shortage of manpower does not spare chemical engineering. The placement rate for 2018-2019 graduate students at Polytechnique Montréal was 100% after 12 months3.
Businesses are struggling to find the skilled professionals they need. Knowing the magnitude of the contribution of chemical engineers to society and industries of the future, it would be quite inconsistent not to encourage more students to move into chemical engineering.
If Quebec really wants to increase the productivity of its industries, that will not happen without chemical engineers. And it is certain that the fight against climate change will not happen without them either. Invest in chemical engineering. Support chemical engineering students. They will change the world.
2. Assuming $ 1,300 in tuition, plus $ 200 in materials per session, for a total of $ 1,500 per session for eight sessions, this comes to a total cost of $ 12,000. With the scholarship, a student saves $ 12,000 in tuition fees, in addition to earning an additional $ 8,000.