Peter Rim
Virginia Tech College of Engineering
Peter Rim of Blacksburg, professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was recently reappointed the Joseph H. Collie Professor of Chemical Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Joseph H. Collie Professorship is awarded for a period of two years to a distinguished visiting professor who has extensive industrial experience and expertise in production, marketing, and sales of chemical products to introduce chemical engineering students to advanced business and marketing concepts in chemicals distribution management.
Rim is an expert in modern business strategies, product development processes, customer relations in a global society, and quality improvement and control. His background and expertise in both chemical technology and business management are valuable to students who seek careers in the chemical industry.
Since joining the Virginia Tech community in 2010, Rim has been popular among chemical engineering students. His course, Business and Marketing in Process Industries, is unique among chemical engineering undergraduate programs in the nation. He scored a perfect score on his teaching evaluations the first time he taught the course. He advises graduating seniors on industrial design projects and is working with the student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
He has more than 25 years of experience in the development, commercialization, and marketing of performance polymer products. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2010, Rim led the product strategy, development, and commercialization of Honeywell Performance Fiber's nearly $1 billion dollar business. He established cost-effective external research and development capabilities at universities, suppliers, and other programs to supplement the in-house capabilities of Honeywell Performance Fibers.
Rim is considered a technical patent expert in new technology areas and his name appears on 12 patents and on more than 20 technical publications.
He earned a bachelor's degree in pre-medicine, and a master's degree and Ph.D. in polymer science from Penn State. He also received an M.B.A. from the University of Richmond.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth's most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 215 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 30,000 students and manages a research portfolio of nearly $400 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.