AICHE

In 1908 a small group of chemical engineers formed a professional society to promote and improve chemical engineering as a discipline. At first this group, called the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) met with strong resistance, especially from the American Chemical Society (ACS), which claimed control over all pure and applied chemistry in the United States. In response AIChE adopted a number of conservative measures, including strict membership criteria to keep membership low and avoid competition with ACS. Nonetheless the value of AIChE was realized by the entire discipline in 1925, when chemical engineering became the first profession to use scholastic accreditation to ensure the consistency and quality of academic chemical engineering courses. The conservative attitude paid off when peace was made between ACS and AIChE around 1930. The membership criteria were lifted and chemical engineers joined in droves... The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is..