Justice Akuchie, who graduated from the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2004, has worked at Shell for the last 13 years after starting out his career with Siemens Energy and Exterran. He currently serves in a “project engineering and management capacity leading a team delivering renewable power projects — things like solar battery storage, microgrids and the like.”
“I’ve been able to work across just about every part of the energy value chain; I’ve worked in refining and midstream in biofuels, biogas and renewable power, so the last eight years have been very energy-transition-focused. I credit my strong engineering foundation and background that started at UH with the ability to move across those parts of the industry seamlessly. I may not be an SME in any particular area, but I know enough in every single area to be dangerous,” he laughed.
Up until this semester, he also led technical recruitment for Shell at UH, which has kept him close to campus to regularly interact with students and speak at organization meetings.
Born in Houston to Nigerian parents and one of six children, Akuchie’s family moved back to Nigeria when he was two years old. He spent his formative and schooling years, “but the plan was always to come back to Houston for college. In fact, the University of Houston was sort of always the plan,” he said.
“The reason I picked chemical engineering is that the city I grew up in in Nigeria — Port Harcourt — is sort of the Houston of Nigeria. It’s the oil and gas capital, so it was always sort of a dream of mine to become a petroleum engineer or petrochemical engineer,” said Akuchie. “When I started looking at UH and the degrees offered, petroleum engineering wasn’t being offered as a bachelor’s degree at the time. That made chemical engineering a natural choice.”
Akuchie graduated high school in Nigeria at age 15 and moved back to Houston one year later with his elder sister – another Coog.
Looking back, he describes his experience at the Cullen College of Engineering as “largely positive,” and credits his professors and experiences in design classes with furthering his professional success.
“Being part of PROMES was a really helpful way to sort of get connected, especially coming into a new culture. I didn’t really visit the states when I lived in Nigeria and came straight to school, so it really helped me to get engaged and make friends quickly. We went through the journey together and created that community of support — the community support at UH was exceptional for me.” he said.
He also valued Cullen’s proximity to the oil and gas industry and the opportunities available to students with his interests. Gaining internship and part-time work experience at both Fluor and Siemens before graduation gave him “relevant industry experience” throughout college and upon graduation.
“The proximity of UH to top global engineering companies and oil and gas companies was a huge advantage for me and made the transition to a career post-graduation a lot easier,” he added.
He offered the following wisdom to his fellow Coogs, both students and alumni:
“Stay curious and open to different opportunities or challenges — you never know where it might take you.”