Davidson School of Chemical Engineering presented two of its distinguished alumni with the 2017 Outstanding Chemical Engineer Award. David H. Li (BSChE ’95) and William C. Nelson (BSChE ’74, MSChE ’75) were honored at a banquet on Thursday, September 7.

David H. Li (BSChE ’95) (left) is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, a U.S. publicly traded semiconductor materials company headquartered in Aurora, Illinois. David joined Cabot Microelectronics in 1997 and over the past 20 years, has held a number of different roles within the company including leading the company’s Asia Pacific business where he was based in Shanghai, China as well as numerous other leadership positions in Product Line Management, Investor Relations, and Operations. David started his career as a chemical engineer working at UOP, a petrochemical technology company.

David earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 1995 and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2003.

William C. Nelson (BSChE ’74, MSChE ’75) (right) has over 40 years of Industry experience, and earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. Bill was employed by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) for 26 years, and held various management positions in a wide arc of responsibilities. He was responsible for the Reservoir Planning of the giant Prudhoe Bay Field from 1982-1984; he was responsible for the recruiting of all upstream engineers during the mid-1980’s; he was responsible for ARCO’s Java Sea production and engineering in Indonesia during the 1990’s; and he was the head of all of ARCO’s E&P Research during the merger transition with British Petroleum from 2000-2001.

In 2001, Bill joined Hunt Petroleum Corporation as COO and Sr. VP for Exploration and Production and successfully doubled petroleum reserves while increasing the company’s overall value fivefold culminating in its sale in 2008 to XTO. In 2009, Bill joined Peregrine Petroleum as a member of their Board of Managers and as an executive oil and gas consultant to their CEO.

A 2013 Co-Op Hall of Fame Inductee, Bill is also currently on the Board of Trustees for the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and previously held a Board position with Production Access, a petroleum software provider.