Dr. Vincent Grassi, Professor of Practice in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering passed away on May 3, 2020 in Florida, surrounded by his family after a protracted battle with oesophageal cancer. He was 64 years old and is survived by his wife and daughter.
Dr. Grassi received his BS (1978) from the U. of Rochester and MS (1985) and PhD (1991) degrees from Lehigh University, all in Chemical Engineering. He was employed with Air Products & Chemical Inc. from 1978 to 2013 for a period of 35 years until his retirement in 2013, beginning as a process engineer and rising through the ranks and holding various leadership positions as Senior Engineering Manager of Process Modeling and Control, Director of Global Learning and Knowledge Management and prior to retirement, as Director of Diversity and Inclusion. He was instrumental in creating a "Corporate University" at Air Products & Chemicals Inc. that developed best practices for knowledge transfer, idea management and collaboration to optimize global knowledge solutions for the company. Several of these initiatives were recognized by awards given by the company in the areas of outstanding process technology and global information technology.
Outside of Air Products, Dr. Grassi held highly visible positions in the central operations of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), serving as Chair and Director of one of the divisions of AIChE, serving on the Chemical Technology Operating Council, serving as the Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of AIChE (a conference with over 6000 attendees) and most recently, serving as the Executive Programming Board Chair in 2014.
While still working at Air Products, Dr. Grassi served as an Adjunct Professor in the department from 2008-2013, primarily engaging in the senior capstone design project, both as a lecturer as well as serving as an industrial consultant on student design projects. After retiring from Air Products, he joined the department full-time in 2015 as a Professor of Practice.
Since 2015, his teaching touched all four years of chemical engineering education at Lehigh — Introduction to Engineering Practice (Engr 005) in the freshman year, Professional Development (CHE179) in the sophomore year, Mass Transfer (CHE244) in junior year, and Process Design (CHE233/234) and Unit Operations (CHE202/203) in senior year. He was also particularly active in encouraging women chemical engineers to excel in their careers, providing encouragement during difficult courses and suggesting promising career paths.
Faculty colleagues in the department quickly recognized Dr. Grassi as a gifted teacher who embraced new methods of pedagogy, took an active role in the KEEN initiative within the department and explored new tools of engineering education through entrepreneurial skill development. He was recognized with two awards at Lehigh — The Stabler Award for Teaching Excellence (2019) at the University level and the Rossin College Faculty Experiential Learning Excellence Award (2019).
We have lost an unusually gifted educator, a passionate student mentor, a friend and colleague.
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