AKRON—The ACS Rubber Division has conferred its annual Science and Technology Awards upon seven groundbreaking industry individuals, including Christopher Macosko of the University of Minnesota, who received the prestigious Charles Goodyear Medal.
The winners will be honored in-person April 25-27 at the Rubber Division's Spring Technical Meeting in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
• Anke Blume is the 2023 winner of the Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award, sponsored by Lion Elastomers.
Blume, a professor of engineering technology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, was honored for her work with Degussa A.G., now Evonik, in silica and silanes for rubber applications.
At Evonik, Blume serves as IP manager in the resource efficiency division.
Blume initially studied chemistry at the University of Hanover. She earned her doctorate from the German Institute for Rubber Technology in 1995.
The Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award was established in 1983 to honor the developer of the Mooney Viscometer and other testing equipment. The award goes to an individual who exhibits "exceptional technical competency by making significant and repeated contributions to rubber science and technology," according to the ACS Rubber Division.
• The 2023 George Stafford Whitby Award for Distinguished Teaching and Research, sponsored by Cabot Corp., goes to Li Jia, a professor of polymer science and engineering and chemistry at the University of Akron.
Jia is being honored for his work in implementing new chemistry in rubber compounding.
He obtained his bachelor's at Lanzhou University in China and his doctorate in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1996. He started in academia at Lehigh University, where he pioneered transition metal-catalyzed carbonylative polymerization of aziridines. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 academic papers and publications.
The George Stafford Whitby Award was established in 1986 to honor teachers and academic scientists for "distinguished, innovative and inspirational research in chemistry and polymer science."
• The 2023 Sparks-Thomas Award, sponsored by Endurica L.L.C., is being given to Lewis Tunnicliffe, a lead scientist for rubber product development at Birla Carbon.
Tunnicliffe assists in the development of raw materials for the rubber world and the "structure-property relationships for viscoelastic and fracture effects in particle reinforced rubbers," according to his bio from the ACS Rubber Division.
He obtained his doctorate in materials science from the soft matter research group at Queen Mary University in London.
Tunnicliffe won the James S. Walker Prize in 2010 from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining; and the Young Scientist Prize from Tire Technology International in 2013.
The Sparks-Thomas Award was established in 1986 in memory of William J. Sparks and Robert M. Thomas, chemists who developed butyl rubber. It recognizes scientific contributions and innovations in the field of elastomers by younger scientists, technologists and engineers.
• Glen Fredrickson, a soft matter theorist renowned for his work on self-assembling polymers, is the 2023 recipient of the Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award, sponsored by Renkert Oil L.L.C.
Born in Washington D.C., Fredrickson pioneered a "field-theoretic simulation technique involving a direct numerical attack on field theory models that has been widely deployed to assess the structure and phase behavior of complex, multiphase polymer systems," according to his bio.
He earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Florida and his doctorate from Stanford University in the same discipline. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara and previously worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
The Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award was established in 1991 to honor innovations that have yielded significant new commercial or patentable materials.
• The 2023 Fernley H. Banbury Award, sponsored by Ace Laboratories in Ravenna, Ohio, goes to John Putman.
Putman is a 40-year industry entrepreneur who invented the rubber chemical dispersion PolyGel while he was with Polymerics. While he was with Monsanto, he was the engineering specialist for rest-of-the-world training.
He also was the second employee of testing firm ARDL, the Akron Rubber Development Laboratory. Putnam earned his bachelor's in mathematics from the University of Akron.
In 1982 he co formed Tech Pro, Inc. for which he was able to provide the first data acquisition systems in his industry. He continued to lead the development team and co-authored numerous patents. Tech Pro was acquired by Roper Industries in 2008.
This ACS Rubber Division award honors the memory of Fernley H. Banbury, the inventor of the internal mixer that takes his name today. The award, established in 1986, typically goes to an innovator of product equipment instrumentation or control systems that are widely used in the rubber industry.
• Arthur Coury, a distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, is the winner of the 2023 Bioelastomer Award, sponsored by Cancarb.
Coury received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota and has been in numerous leadership roles in the field of biomaterials throughout his career.
He served as an executive in Genzyme Corp. from 2000-10, and "established the first polymer research group which developed and patented an arsenal of implantable polymers following pioneering research on their biocompatibility and biostability," according to his bio from the Rubber Division.
The Bioelastomer Award honors "significant contributions to the advancement of biomaterials in the field of rubber science and technology," according to the ACS Rubber Division. It was established in 2018.
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