Perry Jones, age 6, stands in a field on his grandfather’s Virginia farm. He hears a buzz and looks up to see a plane flying overhead. “Grandpa, that’s what I want to do when I grow up,” he says eagerly. “I want to drive that airplane.” “Perry, if you want to drive that airplane, you can do it,” his grandather tells him. Jones would go on to become the first Black airline pilot for Pan Am. More > (PDF p. 12)
Kent Harries is bouncing around in a Jeep in the remote Darjeeling region of India when suddenly his life flashes before his eyes. A large military truck is coming the other way down the one-lane road, and he knows it’s not getting out of the way. He and student Derek Mitch hang on as the Jeep driver veers out of the truck’s path, narrowly averting disaster. More > (PDF p. 7)
Filed under: Chemistry, Economics, Environment, Pitt, Pitt Engineer, Technology
At a Sasol research facility in South Africa, Badie Morsi watches coal travel down a conveyor belt on its way to becoming diesel fuel and sees the future.
Morsi dreams of a day when the United States — and Western Pennsylvania — won’t have to import oil but can use reactors similar to the one at the Sasol facility to make it. More > (PDF p. 7)
Filed under: Culture, Education, Geology, Pitt, Pitt Engineer, Profiles, Technology
Oil erupts from the ground with a whoosh! Dirt-poor Jett Rink (James Dean, in Giant, his last film role) staggers backward, arms outstretched, letting the “black gold” rain down on him.
Watching this movie as a child in Cairo, Egypt, Mahmoud Dabbous was enamored not only with the excitement of striking oil but also with the American geography and way of life it depicted.
He went on to found the Improved Petroleum Recovery (IPR) Group of Companies, of which he is president and chief executive officer. More (Large PDF) >
