CINCINNATI (Oct. 10, 2012)—The ACS Rubber Division will honor Russell Livigni with the 2013 Charles Goodyear Medal, the technical group announced during its Rubber Expo in Cincinnati.
The medal is the Rubber Division's highest award and honors an individual for “outstanding invention, innovation or development which resulted in significant change or contribution to the nature of rubber industry.” The medal will be awarded at the group's spring meeting in April in Akron.
Livigni was chosen because of his pioneering work with high-trans rubbers, the group said. He was the principal scientist in the discovery and development of barium-based catalysts for the polymerization of butadiene and its copolymerization with styrene to give high-trans rubbers with low vinyl content.
He started his rubber industry career in 1952 at Firestone's control laboratory at its synthetic rubber development facility. He received a bachelor's of chemistry in 1956 from the University of Akron and a doctorate in polymer chemistry from the school in 1960.
After receiving his doctorate, Livigni went to work at Ford Motor Co.'s scientific laboratory. In 1961 he joined General Tire & Rubber Co. as a senior research chemist. He had a variety of positions at General and GenCorp Inc. (its subsequent name) before becoming vice president and director of GenCorp Research from 1988-95.
He became vice president, corporate technology in 1995 and retired in 1996 to consult for Omnova, a spin-off of GenCorp.
He currently is a consultant in polymer and rubber chemistry and R&D organization.
Livigni has received 27 U.S. patents and has been published in numerous technical publications.