His retirement will not be filled with relaxing days of fishing, traveling, or other traditional retirement hobbies. Instead, Dr. White's thoughts will remain focused on chemical engineering. In January, less than a month after his departure from Tech, he assumed the position of Director and Earnest W. Deavenport, Jr. Chair in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University.

For those who know him, it is not surprising that Dr. White would embark on a new career. His days at Tech were filled not only with teaching, service, and mentoring graduate students, but also as director of the Focused Research Program in Surface Science and Catalysis. He came to Tech in 1977, directly after receiving his P.h.D. from Rice University and had already worked as a research engineer at Amoco's research center. Essentially, his passion for learning and teaching has not stopped since he first entered school.

Dr. White will continue to hold several external positions he had while at Tech, including as a member of the National Science Foundation proposal-review panels and as a consultant for companies such as Dow Chemical and BP Amoco.

Dr. White says that he is enjoying the challenges of heading a department and has quickly adjusted to life in Mississippi.