The Plastics Pioneers Association this month announced that three new members have been selected to join the organization.
Founded in 1944, the PPA is a non-profit organization with a roster of more than 250 members, all of whom have at least 25 years of experience in plastics. The group’s primary purpose is to award scholarships to students seeking a career in plastics and to preserve the history of the industry. Plastics Technology Executive Editor Matthew Naitove as well as yours truly are among the members, as is Rick Kline, CEO of Gardner Business Media, parent compant of PT.
The new inductees are:
Dennis Paradise: Paradise has been in plastics machinery sales since 1986, when he joined McNeil Akron as sales manager. Since then he has worked in a variety of sales positions for Krupp Machinery, HPM, Dynisco, and Extrusion Dies Inc.
Dennis is currently senior vice president of sales and marketing for Processing Technologies Inc., a global supplier of sheet extrusion systems based in Aurora, Ill. During his career Paradise has served on the regional advisory board of the SPI and has presented papers at numerous conferences around the world. He is also a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers. Dennis graduated from Kent State University in 1976 with a BS in business administration.
John Perdikoulias: Perdikoulias joined the plastics industry in 1985, when he went to work for Brampton Engineering as an R&D engineer. In his 12-year stint at Brampton he designed more than 200 single-layer and more than 100 coextrusion dies for blown film. One of the more significant products that Perdikoulias helped commercialize is Brampton’s stacked-type die, called the Streamlined Coextrusion Die. His work ultimately lead to the sale of the first commercial 8- and 9-layer dies in the world, which have helped make Brampton a global leader in coextrusion blown film extrusion systems.
Perdikoulias co-founded Compuplast in 1989, where he currently serves a president. At Compuplast, Perdikoulias has developed some of the most advanced CAE tools that more than 200 companies around the world use for the design and optimization of polymer processing equipment.
Perdikoulias earned both his bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in chemical engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He received his PhD in chemical engineering in 1997 from the University of Waterloo.
Perdikoulias has been an active member of both the SPE and TAPPI for virtually his entire career.
In 1997, he received the best paper award for his presentation at ANTEC. He also received the TAPPI PLACE Technical Achievement Award and Best Paper award in 2004. He also recently received designation as an Honored Service Member of SPE.
Mark Spalding has spent his entire 28-year career working in R&D for Dow Plastics. Over that span he has held a number of technical positions in corporate R&D, polystyrene R&D, plastics R&D, and INCLOSIA Solutions.
Spalding is widely considered an expert in single-screw extrusion and related polymer processing technologies. He has solved some of the most complicated extrusion problems at Dow customer’s plants by developing and applying sophisticated troubleshooting methods. These solutions have created considerable value to both Dow and to Dow’s customers. Mark has designed extrusion systems for most of Dow’s major customers for virtually every resin that Dow produces.
Spalding has been involved with the SPE throughout his career. He has served as technical program chairman for SPE’s ANTEC Conference in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013. He served on the SPE’s Fellows Selection Committee in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2013. He has been a board member of the SPE’s Extrusion Division since 1999, having served as chairman in 2004-2005. He is also a member of the Polymer Processing Society.
He was elected an Honored Service Member SPE in 2011, and a Fellow Member in 2003. He also received the Bruce Maddock Award from the Extrusion Division in 2006 and six times received the Best Paper Award at ANTEC.
Spalding completed a book to be published by Hanser in April 2013 titled Analysis and Troubleshooting of Single-Screw Extruders. The book is 700 pages; the first half provides the fundamental theory of extrusion based on screw rotation physics, the second half contains nearly 100 actual case studies on extrusion problems and their technical solutions. Prof. Gregory A Campbell is coauthor.
He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Toledo in 1979, his M.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1982; and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1985.
Paradise, Perdikoulias and Spalding will be inducted at the PPA’s spring meeting, scheduled for April 11-13 at the Omni Hotel on Hilton Head Island. S.C.
