A LETTER TO ALEXANDER

About the Book

About the Author

Author: John J Wise. This is a memoir of 44 years spent managing research during the golden age of petroleum R&D. It describes John J. Wise’s career as a chemical engineer working for Mobil Research and Development Corporation. He rose up through the management ranks becoming Vice President Planning, Manager of Exploration and Producing Research, Manager of Process and Product Research and Vice President Research. Highlights of his career include the development of a series of novel petroleum, petrochemical and synthetic fuels processes based on zeolite catalysis. He also was a co-chair of a $100 million Auto/Oil industry research consortium that provided the data used to implement the Clean Air Act. The stories of new technologies described in this book are written in easily understandable terms. Each story is chosen to illustrate a lesson learned. The lessons learned are summarized in a letter to his grandson, Alexander Wise Philbrick, with the hope that "he will learn the easy way what I learned the hard way." Readers should keep in mind that the author wrote this book for the sole benefit of his grandson.