Rubber Division names award winners

PITTSBURGH—Besides the Charles Goodyear Medal, the ACS Rubber Division named winners for five other awards during its International Elastomer Conference in Pittsburgh. All will be presented at the technical group's spring meeting next April.

Melvin Mooney award

David Lohse, retired from ExxonMobil Chemical, was named winner of the Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award, given to individuals who have exhibited exceptional technical competency by making significant and repeated contributions to rubber science and technology.

Lohse began working for ExxonMobil in 1980, first in the Long Range Polymer Research Group of Exxon Chemical Co., and later in what are now the Corporate Strategic Research Labs of ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Co. in Annandale, N.J. He retired from Exxon Mobil in 2011 as a distinguished research associate.

His work focused on a wide range of topics in rubber science and technology. His research resulted in more than 120 publications—including a book on “Polymeric Compatibilizers” written in 1996 with Sudhin Datta of ExxonMobil—and 48 US patents.

Whitby award

Sadhan Jana of the University of Akron will receive the George Stafford Whitby Award for Distinguished Teaching & Research, which honors teachers of chemistry and polymer science, and recognizes innovative research.

Jana is currently a professor and chair of the school's Department of Polymer Engineering. He has contributed to the professional development of more than 100 undergraduate students and about 500 master's and doctoral students pursuing advanced degrees in polymers, chemical engineering, and chemistry through classroom teaching, academic advising, mentoring, and supervision of thesis research at UA. He has directed thesis research of 25 doctorate and 17 master's students at the university.

Jana's impact on rubber education is also felt among high school graduates in Saudi Arabia, where the University of Akron served as an educational partner to establish in 2008 a first of its kind elastomer technician training institute in Yanbu.

Sparks-Thomas Award

Juan Lopel Valentin will be honored with the Sparks-Thomas Award, which is for younger scientists, technologists and engineers who have made contributions in the elastomers field.

He currently is a tenured scientist in the Elastomers Group at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology in Madrid.

Valentin received his doctorate in chemistry in 2005 from the Complutense University of Madrid. His main research field is focused on the development and advanced characterization of rubber materials for advanced applications.

He has authored more than 70 publications, one book chapter and is the co-inventor of two patents.

Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award

The Rubber Division will honor Jimmy Mays with its Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award.

He is a distinguished scientist at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Mays' research is centered on polymer synthesis and polymer characterization and solution properties. He is a fellow of the American Chemical Society, fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has won the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division's Herman Mark Senior Scholar Award, the ACS PMSE Division's Doolittle Award, and the ACS Southern Chemist Award.

Fernley H. Banbury Award

Richard Jorkasky was tapped to receive the Fernley H. Banbury award, which honors innovations of production equipment widely used in the manufacture of rubber or rubber-like articles.

Jorkasky is technical manager at Kobelco Steward Bolling Inc. He spent the first 23 years of his career with Standard Oil of Ohio, before joining Kobelco Steward Bolling in 1999. His duties there have dealt mostly with the mixing of various rubber systems with internal mixers, production/experimental mixing for customers, mixing equipment optimization and consulting on rubber mixing and mixing problems.

In 2012, he started an intern program between KSBI and the chemical engineering department of the University of Akron, which has resulted in all interns who have graduated changing their focus and accepting positions in the rubber industry.

He has given more than 150 presentations on rubber mixing equipment or related topics, has 12 patents and has authored or co-authored 24 /mixing parameters/mixing equipment, has 12 patents, has authored/co-authored 24 publications on the processing and mixing of rubber/plastics and teaches a course on Internal Mixers and Mixing Parameters for the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society.