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Each year, SPE recognizes outstanding contributions to the plastics industry as part of its Annual Awards Program. All awards will be presented at ANTEC® 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, May 22, 2016. Volunteer recognition will be during a lunchtime celebration. All other Award Recipients will be honored at the the Awards Gala on Sunday evening.
2016 Annual Award Recipients
Dr. Kenig is dean of engineering and head of graduate studies in plastics engineering at Shenkar College in Israel. In his PhD research (1968-1972), he was the first to study, model and simulate the complete injection molding process. His thesis was the inspiration for many commercial software packages that simulate the injection molding process. Before joining academia, Dr. Kenig served in various industrial R&D positions.
In 1974, he joined the Research Authority of the Israel Ministry of Defense, where he held various positions in the Materials and Processes Division and in 1986 became managing director of the Division, a position which he held until 1991.
In 1992, Dr. Kenig established the Israel Plastics & Rubber Center (IPRC) Ltd., aimed at advancing the technical and scientific infrastructure of the plastics & rubber industries. IPRC became an effective and highly acclaimed R&D institute in Israel and abroad. Dr. Kenig served as the managing director of IPRC till May of 2014.
Concurrently with his industrial activities Prof. Kenig was involved in academic affairs for more than 30 years. During his work with the MOD and IPRC Dr. Kenig supervised (jointly) 6 M.Sc. and 4 Ph.D. students in the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology).
In 1994, he established the Department of Plastics Engineering at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and was appointed the department head. Under his leadership the Department became the major source of plastics engineers in Israel and currently has more than 40 graduates a year. Since its inception more than 450 students graduated with a B.Sc. in plastics engineering.
Dr. Kenig became a full professor in 2000 and in 2007 was appointed dean of the engineering faculty. In 2009 he established the M.Sc. degree at Shenkar and was appointed head of graduate studies in plastics engineering. Since 2009, more than 40 M.Sc. students have graduated from the program.
In 2010, Dr. Kenig established a joint Ph.D. program with the department of plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts—Lowell. Since then 6 Ph.D. students have graduated from the joint program.
Since 2000, Dr. Kenig has been involved in R&D activities related to polymer nanocomposites. This work led to numerous publications and 4 major Patents. The patents were commercialized by Nanto Ltd. (Italy), where corrosion resistant paints containing functionalized nanoclays have been developed and are sold under the trade name of "Nanto Protective Paints". In addition fire retardant polymers based on nanoclays currently sold under the trade name "Nanto FR" and "Nanto FR Paints".
Since 2005, Dr. Kenig has been involved in R&D related to superhydrophobic coatings. His research led to joint research program with UMass Lowell leading to numerous publications and a Patent. The results are applied as icephobic coating in military applications.
Prof. Kenig is the author of more than 150 papers and 16 Patents and has delivered more than 120 lectures in International Conferences. He has been a member of the Society of Plastics Engieers (SPE) since 1969.
Frank Macher is chairman and CEO of Continental Structural Plastics (CSP). A recognized expert in strategic and business planning, advanced technologies, product development, and manufacturing processes and operations, he has more than 45 years’ experience in the automotive industry.
Prior to CSP, Mr. Macher was CEO and president of Collins & Aikman; chairman and CEO of Federal-Mogul Corporation; and president and CEO of ITT Automotive. He also spent 30 years at Ford Motor Company where he held several key executive positions, including vice president of the Automotive Components Group, an $11-billion operation and the predecessor to Visteon.
During his tenure at the Automotive Components Group, Mr. Macher expanded the company’s electronics operations on a global basis. He also established five joint ventures in China, including Yan Fang, now a $7.5 billion entity partnered with Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation.
During the early part of his career, Mr. Macher was involved in a number of automotive plastics innovations, including the first:
- Polyethylene fender liner on the Lincoln Town Car (early 1970s)
- Two-shot, rear tail lens molding process (developed with Farrell Corp. and fellow Ford employee, Larry Westin in 1972)
- All-plastic, one-piece instrument panel on the 1975 Cougar passenger car
- E-Beam cured paint for plastic instrument panels in 1975 (with Ford coworker Norm Brennan)
- Blow-molded polyethylene fuel tank on the 1979 Mustang
- Tubular cross-car beam designs (working in conjunction with Ford’s William Caldwell) that provided stiffness, structure, and reduced noise/vibration/harshness (NVH) for modular instrument panel systems, enabling single assembly for just-in-time (JIT) sequencing operations.
Mr. Macher earned a BSME from Kettering University and an MBA from Michigan State University. He was honored with the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, and in 2006 was recognized by Automotive News as Supplier All-Star of the year. He currently serves on the boards of Martinrea International and General Products, and has served on the MIT Leaders of Manufacturing Board, Stanford Industrial Manufacturing Advisors, and the Board of Trustees for Kettering University.
The Fred E. Schwab Education Award
Sponsored by the Detroit Section of SPE and SPE Automotive Division
Dr. Tim Osswald is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Polymer Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Originally from Cúcuta, Colombia, he received his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the field of polymer processing. He spent two and one half years at the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Aachen, Germany, as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
Dr. Osswald received the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award, as well as the 2001 VDI-K Dr—Richard-Escales-Preis. In 2006 he was named an Honorary Professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and in 2011 he was named Honorary Professor at the National University of Colombia.
Dr. Osswald teaches polymer processing and designing with polymers and does research in these fields, in particular in the areas of fiber orientation, fiber density and fiber length distributions. His fiber research relates to composites as well as to the paper industries.
Dr. Osswald has published over 200 papers, the books Materials Science of Polymers for Engineers (Hanser, 1996, 2003, 2012), Polymer Processing Fundamentals (Hanser 1998), Injection Molding Handbook (Hanser, 2001, 2007), Compression Molding (Hanser, 2003), Polymer Processing Modeling and Simulation (Hanser 2006), International Plastics Handbook (Hanser 2006), Plastics Testing and Characterization (Hanser, 2008), Understanding Polymer Processing (2010) and Polymer Rheology (Hanser 2015). His books have been translated into Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian.
Professor Osswald is also the series editor of Plastics Pocket Power (Hanser, 2001), which currently includes six books, is the editor for the Americas of the Journal of Polymer Engineering and the English language editor for the Journal of Plastics Technology. Professor Osswald has been consulted by several industries, is one of the co-founders of The Madison Group, and is in the on the technical advisory boards of several companies.
The Research/Engineering Technology Award
Sponsored by SPE Extrusion Division
Gregory Campbell was raised on the coast of Maine and finished his education with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Maine. In 1968, he joined General Motors Research Laboratory as a research engineer and became senior staff research engineer in 1978. During his 13 years at General Motors Research Laboratory, he contributed to the solution of a number of critical research programs relating to the corporate change from almost exclusively metal construction to a larger and larger fraction of the car being plastics.
In 1984, Dr. Campbell became a chemical engineering faculty member at Clarkson University. During his tenure at Clarkson he held several administrative positions including department chair, chief information officer, and dean of engineering. His research focused on polymer processing and property interrelationships in extrusion, injection molding, blown film, electronic resists, foams, liquid crystalline polymer, and fuel cells. He also was the Director of the Extrusion and Mixing Consortium at Clarkson for 8 years.
Dr. Campbell has published over 170 research papers and directed 27 graduate students. From 1991 to 1995 he was treasurer and a member of the executive committee of the International Polymer Processing Society. From 2001 until the present he has served on the board of the Extrusion Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers and in 1994 became a Society Fellow. He was elected SPE Honored Service member in 2011. He served as an SPE Councilor for two terms and was on the SPE executive committee for three years. He has also served on a number of SPE committees and was treasurer for one year.
Dr. Campbell has retired from Clarkson and now lives in Maine.
2016 Fellows of the Society
We are proud to introduce the newest Fellows of the Society. These five SPE members are honored for their outstanding contributions in the field of plastics engineering, science or technology, or in the management of such activities. Candidates must be sponsored by an SPE Division or Special Interest Group and elected by the Fellows Election Committee on the basis of their professional record as well as written sponsorships from at least two SPE members. Only 319 members, including the new Fellows, have been awarded this prestigious title since it was introduced in 1984.
- 2016 Fellows Application
- 2016 Fellows Application and Guidelines
- Letter to Process Champions
- Previous Honorees
This year’s Fellows, with their SPE Division and Section affiliations, are:
Dr. Rong-Yeu Chang is now the Chairman & CEO of CoreTech System (Moldex3D) Co. Ltd. Prior to his current role, he has spent more than 30 years in the research and education of rheology and polymer processing in the Department of Chemical Engineering in Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. He and his teammates founded CoreTech System Co., Ltd. to serve industrial customers with Moldex and Moldex3D series products since 1995. One of his greatest achievements is the commercialization of the academic researche into CAE software, Moldex3D. Till this day, the software has been widely employed across a variety of industries by more than 2,500 users globally to aid the design and manufacture of plastic products.
Dr. Bharat Chaudhary is a Principal Research Scientist at The Dow Chemical Company. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.Sc. from Imperial College, London (U.K.) and a B.Eng. from the University of Benin (Nigeria), all in Chemical Engineering. He has over 26 years of experience leading research and development in a variety of areas related to polymer modification (particularly sustainable approaches based on blends, functionalization and crosslinking). Dr. Chaudhary has received several awards for his work; is author of 32 journal papers and 20 conference/technical presentations; and is inventor on 52 U.S. and 23 European granted patents.
Dr. Stéphane Costeux is R&D Fellow at The Dow Chemical Company. He earned a M.Sc. and R&D Engineer diploma from ESPCI (Paris, France) and holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics of Liquids from University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris. Since joining Dow in 2002, he has applied his expertise in rheology, materials science, polymer processing and modeling to the design of commercial high melt strength resins and new foam materials, and to the advancement of nanocellular foam technology. He authored 25 patents and 40 peer-reviewed publications and is a three-time recipient of the SPE FOAMS Conference Best Paper Award.
Tom Dunn is a practitioner and manager of flexible packaging product development. While emphasizing materials and applying their features for the benefit of packaged products, he replaced paper and aluminum foil with barrier plastics for modified atmosphere snack food packaging. He managed product development for his long-time employer Printpack Inc. from a narrow $100 million product line to a broad one of over $1 billion. He has received lifetime career achievement awards from the Food Packaging Division of the Institute of Food Technologists; the Polymers and Laminations Division of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry; and the (US) Packaging Hall of Fame. His BA and MS degrees are from Yale University.
Dr. Kapur is a Materials Science Fellow in the Packaging and Specialty Plastics Business Unit of the Dow Chemical Company. Her research work spans various areas including a novel multifunctional analyzer approach for product quality control; catalyst-process-polymer materials science combination with application performance relationships resulting in new, enhanced performance polyethylene product portfolios to meet evolving market needs; and intellectual property protection. She is also involved in defining University/External Institute-Industry collaborations. She has 13 granted US patents and over 25 publications and conference presentations. Dr. Kapur is a past Board Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers Blow Molding Division, and current Councilor for the Engineering Properties and Structure Division.
Dr. Masaya Kotaki is the General Manager of Kaneka US Material Research Center, Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. located in Texas, USA since 2014. His research career includes roles as an Associate Professor at the Department of Advanced Fibro-Science in Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan and a Research Associate at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore. He has focused on fundamental understanding of processing-structure-property relationships of polymer-based materials. He co-authored 4 book chapters and more than 100 ISI listed journal papers. His publications have been cited more than 10,000 times with 27 H-index. His contributions to the related scientific societies include the chairmanship of the Asian Workshop on Polymer Processing and board memberships on many plastics & polymers related societies.
David Kusuma is Vice President, Product Development and R&D Worldwide at Tupperware Brands Corporation. For the past 15 years he has been responsible for leading innovation, product development, and engineering to develop 150 to 200 new products every year, which are launched in over 100 countries around the world. Prior to Tupperware David worked at GE Plastics/Exatec as Global Manager, Design and Vehicle Engineering, to develop the use of polycarbonate as a viable alternative to glass in automotive window systems, and prior to that with Bayer Material Science. David has earned several university degrees in Design, Business, and Engineering, including a Ph.D. from Cranfield University in the UK.
Professor McCarthy joined the faculty of the Plastics Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1984 and is currently a Distinguished University Professor. He founded and is director of the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2). He is the Director of the BioPlastics and Medical Plastics Research Center where he is conducting research into biodegradable polymers and blends. He is currently the Editor for the Journal of Polymers and the Environment. He received his B.S. from Southeastern Massachusetts University, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Reinicker recently retired from BASF Corporation after 41 years in the plastics and pigments industries. After receiving a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, he found employment with Hercules, Ciba-Geigy, and finally BASF as a Technical Fellow. His career focus has been pigments, particularity their use in the coloration of synthetic fibers and plastics; his particular love is technical service and support of customers. He joined SPE in the early 1990s, and was a board member of the Color and Appearance Division for 13 years. He has authored numerous papers for RETEC® and ANTEC® and holds several patents.
Dr. Sun pioneered the injection stretch blow molding (ISBM) of polyolefins. His research led to more than 10 U.S. and international patents and patent applications. Dr. Sun's innovations helped promote the industrial application of polyolefin ISBM. Dr. Sun also conducted leading research in polymer composites and nanocomposites. His patent pending nanocoating technology has led to significant improvement in barrier and flame retardant properties. Dr. Sun is the current President of the Chinese American Society of Plastics Engineers. He has participated in the organization of the International Polyolefins Conference for over 10 years, as well as other SPE sponsored conferences. Dr. Sun is also a dedicated educator. Many students have been trained in his courses and moved into polymer industry.
Dr. Costas Tzoganakis is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is also the CTO of Tyromer Inc, a start-up company of the university that uses rubber devulcanization technology based on a unique patented reactive extrusion process developed in the laboratory of Dr. Tzoganakis. He is an expert in the area of reactive extrusion of polymers and has authored several patents as well as over one hundred refereed publications. In 2015, Dr. Tzoganakis received the Heinz List Award from the Extrusion Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers in recognition of his outstanding achievements in reactive processing of polymers.
Karen Xiao is currently the Extrusion Technology Leader with Celgard, LLC responsible for product and process development and improvement in microporous membrane applications. Prior to this, she was the R&D director for an equipment manufacturing company responsible for the design and development of multilayer blown film dies and screws. Dr. Xiao currently serves on the board of the directors of the Extrusion Division of SPE; she was Extrusion Division Chair for 2014-2015. Karen received her Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and her Master's and PhD from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
