Page 6 - CEMS Winter 2022 Newsletter

CEMS NEWS
Retirement reflections
These longtime faculty and staff members bid farewell to CEMS.
It’s becoming increasingly rare to find employees
who reach significant employment milestones at their companies. However, it’s not so uncommon in CEMS. Whether a reflection of the Department or of the employees themselves, CEMS staff member David Giles and faculty members Raul Caretta, Jeff Schott, and Friedrich Srienc have committed two, three or four decades of service to CEMS in their professional roles. With sincere appreciation and deep gratitude for their contributions to CEMS, we share their memories below.
environment of the department. The most rewarding memories are receiving emails from alumni who have been out of the program for three to five years, thanking us for all we have done for them and highlighting the fact that they should have paid more attention to our recommendations! I will miss my work friends and the interaction with students.”
If you would like to share your well wishes for Professor Caretta, please do so on this public online bulletin board: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/UOERv6cT
David Giles
David arrived in CEMS as a post-doctoral fellow in 1994, then worked as a staff member in the Polymer Characterization Facility. During his time in CEMS, it’s estimated that David trained nearly 1,000 researchers and advised over 100 companies in the Rheology Lab.
Raul Caretta
Raul Caretta
A fixture in CEMS for many decades, Professor Raul Caretta (PhD ChE ’79) earned his PhD in the Department, managed the Surface Science Center (with Regents Professor Emeritus Lanny Schmidt), and served as lead instructor in the Unit Operations Lab.
Raul commented on the technological changes that have occurred during his time in CEMS. “When I started in 1985, the University was a
David said, “When I was
considering Professor Chris
Macosko’s offer of a two-year
postdoc at Minnesota in 1994,
my wife Susie said: “I can live
anywhere for two years!” But it wasn’t that hard to take
a chance on Minnesota: working with Chris Macosko was a great opportunity, and the Twin Cities has a diverse culture for time outside of work, with year-round recreation, art, and music for all tastes. We’re still here. Managing the Polymer Lab, as it was called then, turned out to be a good fit for me. I enjoyed the challenge of keeping the instruments working and training graduate students, helping them in that experimental side of their research. And it will continue (more on my own schedule) when I return as a part-time retiree.”
Please share your well wishes for David: https://www. kudoboard.com/boards/V1uFWEAp
MacIntosh institution, and in 1989, I was very excited to have purchased an SE30 with FDHD 1.4 MB floppy drive (a.k.a. SuperDrive) and support more than 4 MB of RAM. Things have changed since then.”
In addition to his teaching position, Raul also served as the CEMS Department Safety Officer for many years; a responsibility that also had some drawbacks. “I won’t miss the 2:00 a.m. phone calls from members of the CEMS community who forgot their office or building keys and wanted authorization from security officers to let them in.”
Reflecting on his long career, Raul remarked, “I loved contributing towards the education of future chemical engineers. I have also enjoyed the camaraderie and family
David Giles
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