Inducted
1998
Degrees
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, West Virginia University, 1961
- M.S. Chemical Engineering, West Virginia University, 1963
- Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois, 1965
Jim Mitchell was born in Ohio County, on July 18, 1939 and graduated from Point Pleasant High School in 1957. He received a BSChE degree from West Virginia University in 1961, and MS (1963) and PhD (1965) degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. He did his graduate work under Professor Thomas Hanratty resulting in a thesis entitled, Investigation of Wall Turbulence Using a Diffusion Controlled Electrode. During his studies he became a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Si, Phi Lambda Upsilon, Phi Kappa Phi, Omega Xi Epsilon, Mountain and Sphinx.
In 1965, Mitchell joined Esso (Exxon) Research and Engineering Company, Linden, New Jersey, as a research engineer. Until the end of 1978 he held several positions in the research and engineering divisions of ERE including laboratory director roles in the corporate and government research laboratories.
In 1979, he joined Albany International Corporation, Albany, New York, as vice president for R&D. During this period, he integrated an acquired R&D facility into the corporation. In 1983, Mitchell joined Atlantic Richfield Company at their upstream R&D technical center in Plano, Texas. He is currently a staff member at ARCO Exploration and Production Technology, a unit of Atlantic Richfield Company, at this same location. He serves as manager, technology licensing. In this role, he has worked with several companies within the oil and gas industry to initiate R&D joint ventures.
Mitchell’s activities have included general chairmanships of two annual conferences of the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, service on the boards of the Capital Region (NY) Technology Development Council, the Capitol Repertory Company and the Development Board of the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a member of the Arapaho United Methodist church and has served in various capacities in Baptist and Methodist churches. He is a member of AIChE, ACS, AAAS, Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Licensing Executives Society. He has served on the visiting committees of the chemical engineering departments at WVU and the University of Texas at Austin.
He is married to the former Patricia Dickerson, whom he met while at WVU. Pat holds a home economics degree from WVU. They have two married children.