A Professor Who Changed My Life

On Monday, October 7, 2024, a time of the year that is quite hectic with the fall semester still trying to find rhythm, I made the trip to Toronto to attend the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering's annual conference. What brought me there was the opportunity to speak at the session celebrating Professor Graeme Norval's contributions to the industry and chemical engineering education. I had a lot to say about the professor who had the most profound impact on my growth and development. Here are my speaking notes:

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Daniel Liao, and I’m a former student of Professor Graeme Norval . I am here to talk about how Professor Norval is an industry expert, academic leader, pedagogy innovator, safety advocate, and lifelong mentor.

When I was approached to submit an abstract and speak here today, I was actually a bit perplexed. Normally, teachers remember the best students and worst students. In my undergrad, when I had Prof. Norval, I was truly an unremarkable student. I was C-student for most of my undergrad career. My other deficiency is that I don’t have a PhD and all of the previous speakers and the speakers after me have PhD’s. I have an undergrad and two Master’s, so anyone who calls me a doctor either didn’t read my bio or is trying to flatter me.

But Prof. Norval isn’t like every other teacher. He sees students for their potential and what they can contribute. When he sees that you’re willing to work to achieve your potential, he’ll work with you to get you there.

So how did I get there? I started at University of Toronto in 2003, the year of double cohort. I chose chemical engineering at U of T mainly because it had direct entry into the discipline whereas other universities required you to take general studies or general engineering in the first year. I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and I was set on taking chemical engineering because growing up I could see the people in Calgary who drove nice cars and lived in big houses were in oil and gas. I was very near sighted!

Here I was in first year, I haven’t even turned 18 yet. I was excited. I had never even been to Toronto before accepting my offer. However, to say I went on to achieve academic success right away was wishful thinking. You probably heard the saying Frosh-15 – where your grades go down by 15 and you gain or lose 15 lb. For me it was more like Frosh-35. It was a tough transition. I really struggled. I hit rock bottom when I failed Linear Algebra and was enrolled in the T-program (a transition program at U of T to help struggling students). Nonetheless, I limped along and made it past first year, but I really started to question why I’m taking engineering. Even in second year I failed to see the relevance of many of my courses.

It also didn’t help that there was an expectation that there was an acceptable amount of attrition. In the Sanford Fleming lecture hall, I remember my Calculus 1 professor starting the first class by saying that seating was a bit tight but by Calculus 2, in the second semester, we’ll have more room to stretch out because people will be dropping like flies. That wasn’t very reassuring. Even with the double cohort, where there were a lot of very smart people, so much so that I suffered from imposter syndrome, the expectations that many of us weren’t going to make it was demoralizing and a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It wasn’t until third year that I was taught by Prof. Norval for the first time. Right away I noticed he was different. I kept seeing him in the computer lab on the third floor of the Wallberg building, rather than just in his office and the classroom. He looked like he was preparing for teaching on the workstations and always seemed to be having friendly conversations with students, especially upper year students. It was really refreshing to see that.

It was during the Process Design course that I started to get to know Prof. Norval as an instructor. The course was all practical knowledge and I learned about equipment used in chemical manufacturing processes. I drew them in AutoCAD which he taught us how to use, and then figured out how they worked in the Unit Operations lab under the tutelage of Paul Jowlabar. Paul Jowlabar and Prof. Norval were partners in crime when it came to properly scaffolding learning outcomes in Process Design.

Another observation I had was noticing that Prof. Norval remembered a lot of the students’ names. There were more than 160 of us in the double cohort but he likely remembered two-thirds of the names. I think I caught on to his system though. In a lecture hall like WB116 he’ll remember where you normally sit and which classmates you hang around with. You can trip him up if you start sitting somewhere different and make new friends. But the bigger point is that Prof. Norval remembers who your friends are and made himself a part of the social fabric of the class. As an educator myself I realized that once you remember their names, students see that you are more personally vested in their success rather than just a conduit for curriculum, and they will reciprocate. Students respected that. Students also respected Prof. Norval for the safety-conscious, hardcore engineer that he is. Both Prof. Norval and Paul Jowlabar taught like they walked off the plant floor and job site one day and into the classroom the next. Other professors didn’t give off that vibe and seemed very esoteric in comparison.

At my community college right now, one of my retention tools is to assign engaging, full-time faculty members to as many first semester courses as possible. I am certain I would have struggled less in first year if Prof. Norval taught me linear algebra as I’m sure he would have put an engaging spin on the course.

Remarkably, in third year, my grades started improving, and it had less to do with me getting used to the rigour of post-secondary. The instructional quality in upper years was unequivocally better.

I’ll never forget the logical practical learning outcomes in Prof. Norval’s Process Design course. First it was learning AutoCAD, which is so important as engineers communicate through CAD drawings. Then we were taught Aspen Plus (chemical process modeling software), and when I learned to set up and run simulations, not only did it reinforce what I was learning in my Thermodynamics course, Separation Processes course and in the Unit Operations lab, but even concepts in physical chemistry from first year started to make sense. It reminded me of the TI-83 graphing calculator that I had in my grade 12 calculus class that made derivatives and integrals much easier for me to understand. I’m a visual, hands-on learner. Prof. Norval’s pedagogy was a magnet for my learning style.

My final year of undergrad was truly when Prof. Norval stepped up and became more than an instructor. He ran Plant Design, the climax of our program. I was amazed by his industry connections and the incredible industry advisor he assigned to my Plant Design project. He encouraged each team to select a chief engineer based not on who has the highest grades, which empowered me to become my team’s chief engineer. I still remember the thrill of leading my team into the plant design presentation.

By this time there are long lines of students outside his office at Wallberg. Most of the students had questions about Plant Design. How can you not? It’s an open-ended capstone course that was also highly practical. He was renowned for his patience with each group of students.

At some point that year a switch was flicked and Prof. Norval became a mentor to me. As I was interviewing for post-graduation jobs and making major career decisions, I would go see him. While I was gearing up for an interview with Labatt, I went to him for advice. The job was a management trainee position rather than engineering, but Prof. Norval helped me connect the dots on how my education was relevant. Rather than dissuade me he gave me reasons why it’s a good industry to be in. There will always be demand for beer, he said. With those words he gave me agency.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get that job. My first job was with a company called SunOpta BioProcess and Prof. Norval had a major contribution in me landing there. In my last semester I had an opportunity to interview with Schlumberger, who flew me and a classmate out to Alberta, toured us around Calgary and Red Deer while feeding us $80 steaks. During that trip, I opened up my mailbox and saw an email from Prof. Brad Saville , my third-year reactor design prof, and it was about a job! Prof. Saville was recruiting a process designer for SunOpta BioProcess, whom he was consulting for at the time, and Prof. Norval unreservedly recommended me for it! Words couldn’t describe the honour that I felt to be on their radars for this one and only position. Prof. Saville mentioned it would be using Aspen Plus to model cellulosic ethanol production processes, which I was unfamiliar with at the time. I still had to interview for it but since it was based on Prof. Saville and Prof. Norval’s recommendation, I didn’t have to interview very hard.

It wasn’t long after that I had offers from both SunOpta and Schlumberger. It was an easy decision. I brushed aside realizing by childhood dream of working in oil and gas in Alberta for the prospect of working alongside my beloved former professors on a clean technology.

Early on at SunOpta, Prof. Norval was involved as well, mainly to bring me up to speed on Aspen Plus. SunOpta actually wanted me to shadow Prof. Norval at the outset while he built the process model. Prof. Norval was reluctant and I know why. Prof. Norval saw that I was capable of getting up to speed on the software on my own and felt the need to take a step back. Sure enough, within a short amount of time I built an Aspen model that provided the mass and energy balance. I could run scenarios for the technoeconomic analysis, which was the objective. Prof. Norval knew I had what it takes, took a step back, and that allowed me to stand on my own two feet and build confidence at an early but critical point in my career.

A funny story about my employer: SunOpta was located at the western edge of Brampton just before Georgetown, next to a little village called Norval. After getting off Highway 401 at Winston Churchill Blvd, I have to drive through Norval to get to work. The first time I drove there for my interview I thought it was a joke. Afterwards, I’d drive past Norval everyday and upon seeing the sign on the road I felt a connection to Prof. Norval. That’s the effect Prof. Norval had on me, and countless other students. He lives in our heads, hearts and minds, rent free.

A year into my job, I had an awakening. I wasn’t growing anymore. I didn’t feel challenged. I knew I had to reach out to my trusted Prof. Norval. Over the phone, he said – sounds about right, after 4 intense years of undergrad a job will feel slow. With that he put on his recruiter hat and suggested I look into the Master of Engineering program part-time. I was apprehensive at the prospect of more school given my academic experience. With the encouragement, I enrolled, and it was the best decision I made. Two years later I became a two-time U of T Chem Eng grad. I did my M.Eng. thesis project with Prof. Saville, and got the ELITE certificate as well, which inspired me to do my MBA 5 years later.

There are many other interactions where Prof. Norval helped me grow. We would be here forever if I continued with examples. I know I’m not the only one because many of my classmates have similar experiences. Every time I switched employers Prof. Norval served as my reference. Three and a half years ago when I was interviewing to be the Dean of Applied Science, Technology and Trades at St. Lawrence College , Prof. Norval was the first to submit a reference, just hours after I reached out.

Prof. Norval, you are loved by your students because you support them from the moment they set foot in your classroom and long after they leave. You deserve all of the accolades today, including the ones from yours truly, the C-student.