A tire industry veteran of more than 40 years will be honored for his work during the upcoming International Tire Exhibition & Conference in Akron.
Brendan Rodgers, who spent time at Goodyear and ExxonMobil and now has his own consultancy firm, will receive the 2024 Harold Herzlich Distinguished Technology Achievement Medal.
The award, given biennially during ITEC, recognizes individuals throughout the tire industry whose careers and accomplishments have left a lasting impact on tire design, development and manufacturing, impacts that have changed the industry for the better. It is given in honor of Harold Herzlich, the longtime former technical editor of Rubber News and original conference chair of ITEC.
Rodgers was chosen as the recipient of the medal by an independent committee from a group of nominees with diverse backgrounds in the tire industry. He has more than 30 patents in the tire and rubber track application sector from his time at Goodyear, Exxon and Eli Technologies, his consulting company.
"These patents range from revolutionizing tire curing bladder technology at Exxon, to enhancing track technology at Goodyear, and finding novel performances from specialty additives with Eli Technologies," Erick Sharp, president and CEO of Ace Laboratories, said in nominating Rodgers for the award.
Rodgers will receive the Harold Herzlich Medal during a ceremony on May 15, the second day of ITEC, which will be held May 14-16 at the John S. Knight Center in Akron. For more information on ITEC, including registration and agenda details, visit rubbernews.com/events.
Rodgers earned his bachelor's in biological chemistry from the University of Ulster. From there, he received a master's in polymer technology from the Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he also earned a doctorate in chemical engineering, studying thermodynamics, heat transfer through large rubber sections and vulcanization kinetics.
He started his career with Goodyear in Northern Ireland, working in technical service as a production compounder for hydraulic hose manufacturing, conveyor belts and dock fenders. Rodgers later moved to the Goodyear International Tire Research and Technology Center in Luxembourg. As a senior engineer in Luxembourg, he worked as a materials technologist or compounder on high performance automobile tires for German luxury car manufacturers.
After two years in that position, he was transferred to the Goodyear Technical Center in Akron as a senior compounder working on truck tires for North America. There he worked on new materials technology, new compound development and production implementation.
Much of his focus was on heavy duty off-road tires, and then new highway-steer axle truck tire design and development. That work, in turn, led to focusing on improving rolling resistance and fuel economy.
As the leader, his team developed new compound technologies in addition to new tire constructions and designs.
In 1996, Rodgers took over the role of chief engineer for truck tire design, construction and production implementation in the North American factories. Following that assignment he became chief engineer for compound development covering truck tires, farm tires, off-road and aircraft tires, and new compound introductions to manufacturing.
He moved to ExxonMobil in 2002 at the Chemical Technology Center in Baytown, Texas. At Exxon, Rodgers initially worked on web-based information systems and nanocomposite sciences as they pertained to rubber compounding technology.
In collaboration with the University of New York at Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Exxon's laboratory in Bangalore, India, this work led to significant breakthroughs in exfoliation of inorganic clays in polymer matrices and was the subject of several technical papers and a book chapter.
Rodgers then was assigned to work with the Saudi Arabian government to help scope the Kemya project and develop a new downstream industry that involved the design and costing of new tire factories and industrial rubber products facilities for Saudi Arabia.
Rodgers was appointed technology adviser in 2014 to ExxonMobil's Technology Center in Shanghai, China, were he supported the chemicals technology team in Tokyo, Shanghai, and the R&D laboratory in Bangalore. That work led to a substantial buildup of the Exxon Asia Chemicals and Specialty Polymers team's project and patent portfolio.
His Eli Technologies firm is based in Austin, Texas, and works to support the North American tire and rubber industry, focusing on projects such as factory emissions reductions, gas impermeable personal protective equipment, graphene for tire compound applications, new technology carbon blacks for reduced rolling resistance, and lower rolling resistance for better truck fuel economy.
Besides his broad range of patents, Rodgers' many industry publications include being editor of "Rubber Compounding, Chemistry and Applications," which is used as a teaching text at many institutions, and of "Tire Engineering." Both are published by CRC Press.
ITEC is organized by Rubber News, and includes both a full technical session, along with more market-based presentations adjacent to the exhibition floor.
As the largest tire manufacturing trade show and conference in North America, keynote speakers will include Pierluigi Cumo, vice president of B2B marketing and Michelin and, David Hubbell, senior staff engineer of chassis engineering at Tesla.
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