Hankook's Williams, Endurica's Ebbott to headline Tire Society Conference

AKRON—The main speakers have been set for the 43rd annual Tire Society Conference, to be conducted Sept. 11-13 at the University of Akron.

The conference remains one of the premier events showcasing tire innovation and technology. Register here.

The keynote address will be delivered by Rob Williams, president of Hankook Tire America.

Williams, who has more than three decades in the tire and automotive industries, will speak on "Adapting to Change: Leveraging Technology as a Catalyst for Innovation."

He has served as vice president of Automotive Car Care Centers for AAA Carolinas. And at Michelin, Williams worked in operations and sales as regional director for commercial sales and operations and then as vice president of commercial operations.

The plenary lecture will be given by Tom Ebbott, vice president of Findlay, Ohio-based Endurica L.L.C. Ebbott is an expert in fracture and crack growth in polymers, known for his "leadership and for driving advances in tire modeling, simulation and workflows."

He joined Endurica in 2022 after 35 years at Goodyear. Ebbott has published numerous technical papers and received many industry awards.

A third speaker, Anand Jagota, is a professor and founding chair for the bioengineering program at Lehigh University. Jagota will offer the featured talk during the Awards Banquet.

In addition to the three main speakers, more than 25 technical presentations will be offered at the Tire Society Conference, authored by tire scientists and experts from around the world.

New this year for the conference is an expansion by an extra half-day, according to organizers.

Registration includes Tire Society members, "giving full access to more than 50 years of articles from the Journal of Tire Science and Technology."

The presentations and speeches will be available online following the conference, on-demand.

There also will be discounted registration for the University of Akron's Tire Mechanics Short Course.

Among the topics of the two-and-half-day gathering will be rolling resistance, durability, noise, molecular and constitutive modeling, traction, handling, vehicle dynamics/simulation, manufacturing, intelligent tire systems, active suspension and machine learning.

The Tire Society is a non-profit that disseminates knowledge and stimulates scientific and engineering development in tires.

For more information about the conference visit tiresociety.org.