Interview with Jon Totten from the Chemical Engineering Department, by Kaitlyn Dalton
If you’re in the Chemical Engineering program at Dalhousie University, you most likely have been fortunate enough to have had Jon as an instructor. Jon is passionate about his job, as well as his students’ success, I hope you enjoy getting to know him.
On his educational background at Dalhousie:
I actually did a degree before chemical engineering… it was a Bachelor of Science with a major in psychology. This seems like a really weird switch; I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I was younger, just trying to please my parents and get a degree. When I was doing that degree, I took a course called Personality, and part of it was to take a Myers and Briggs personality test. It tells you your personality type and what job might be best suited for you, it told me engineering was one of my top choices. So, I made that hard switch, graduated with a psychology degree, then enrolled the next year into the Bachelor of Engineering. I chose Chemical engineering because I was really interested in the oil and gas industry at the time.
On why he chose to pursue a master’s degree:
As I was graduating, there was a big hiring freeze, a barrel of oil went down to $20 dollars. There were no job prospects. At that point I was interviewing for other positions… I was interested in getting into the work force any way I could. That didn’t really pan out, so I went and talked to a few of my professors that I had in my undergrad and told them that I was interested in doing a masters, and specifically, multiscale modeling of chemical engineering processes. That ended up getting myself in the door, I got a supervisor and found a right fit for me. I did two years of my master’s here at Dalhousie. My focus was a little bit different; it may not seem like chemical engineering, but it was about modeling the delivery of dissolved oxygen to Atlantic salmon.
[Jon is currently finishing a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Dalhousie as well]. I my PhD, I am interested in improving the hydrodynamics of commercial ebullated hydroprocessers used in bitumen upgrading in the Canadian oil sands - this is an industry sponsored project with Syncrude.
On why he wanted to pursue teaching at Dalhousie University:
When I started grad school, I didn’t intend on teaching. However, during my master’s and PhD, I did a lot of TA work in various core chemical engineering courses. One of the courses I TA’ed a lot in grad school was the capstone course, Product and Process Design, which allowed me to develop a skillset with the Aspen HYSYS software. This skillset led to sessional instructor positions in the chemical engineering department teaching Process Simulation and Plant Design. I got a lot of positive feedback from students over time and the experience of teaching and being a role model/mentor to students has been rewarding. On his life outside of work:
My biggest thing right now is that I have two small children, my daughter, Sophia, she’s ten months, and my son, Benson, he just turned four years old. A lot of my time is spent doing sports and different activities with them. I also love watching MMA and my favorite sports teams (Toronto Maple Leafs, San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots, and Toronto Blue Jays). In my free time I also do a lot of reading and playing Pokémon Go.
On his advice to students:
My best advice to students is to get involved in extracurricular activities during your undergrad, is to make lasting relationships and connections with your peers, teachers, and industry, and most importantly, prioritize your mental health. As engineers, we can set high expectations for ourselves and expect A’s on every deliverable. However, this mindset can set us up for disappointment if we have a bad test or assignment. Throughout my undergrad, there were many times where I did poorly, or even failed a test. I learned not to take everything so seriously and that bad tests happened, but my mental health was more important than getting the A. A few tips to protect your mental health during undergrad would be for students to get adequate sleep, eat properly, and spend time with peers outside of school.
Anyone who has had Jon as an instructor knows that he is passionate about teaching and truly cares about his students. Thank you, Jon, for the interview and for the excellent responses!