Slideshow: SPE Fellows Inductees

Bharat Chaudhary is a Principal Research Scientist at The Dow Chemical Company. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.Sc. from Imperial College, London (U.K.) and a B.Eng. from the University of Benin (Nigeria), all in Chemical Engineering. He has over 26 years of experience leading research and development in a variety of areas related to polymer modification (particularly sustainable approaches based on blends, functionalization and crosslinking). Dr. Chaudhary has received several awards for his work; is author of 32 journal papers and 20 conference/technical presentations; and is inventor on 52 U.S. and 23 European granted patents.

Stéphane Costeux is R&D Fellow at The Dow Chemical Company. He earned a M.Sc. and R&D Engineer diploma from ESPCI (Paris, France) and holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics of Liquids from University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris. Since joining Dow in 2002, he has applied his expertise in rheology, materials science, polymer processing and modeling to the design of commercial high melt strength resins and new foam materials, and to the advancement of nanocellular foam technology. He authored 25 patents and 40 peer-reviewed publications and is a three-time recipient of the SPE FOAMS Conference Best Paper Award.

Tom Dunn is a practitioner and manager of flexible packaging product development. While emphasizing materials and applying their features for the benefit of packaged products, he replaced paper and aluminum foil with barrier plastics for modified atmosphere snack food packaging. He managed product development for his long-time employer Printpack Inc. from a narrow $100 million product line to a broad one of over $1 billion. He has received lifetime career achievement awards from the Food Packaging Division of the Institute of Food Technologists; the Polymers and Laminations Division of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry; and the (US) Packaging Hall of Fame. His BA and MS degrees are from Yale University.

Kapur is a Materials Science Fellow in the Packaging and Specialty Plastics Business Unit of the Dow Chemical Company. Her research work spans various areas including a novel multifunctional analyzer approach for product quality control; catalyst-process- polymer materials science combination with application performance relationships resulting in new, enhanced performance polyethylene product portfolios to meet evolving market needs; and intellectual property protection. She is also involved in defining University/External Institute-Industry collaborations. She has 13 granted US patents and over 25 publications and conference presentations. Dr. Kapur is a past Board Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers Blow Molding Division, and current Councilor for the Engineering Properties and Structure Division.

Masaya Kotaki is the General Manager of Kaneka US Material Research Center, Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. located in Texas, USA since 2014. His research career includes roles as an Associate Professor at the Department of Advanced Fibro-Science in Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan and a Research Associate at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore. He has focused on fundamental understanding of processing-structure- property relationships of polymer-based materials. He co-authored 4 book chapters and more than 100 ISI listed journal papers. His publications have been cited more than 10,000 times with 27 H-index. His contributions to the related scientific societies include the chairmanship of the Asian Workshop on Polymer Processing and board memberships on many plastics & polymers related societies.

David Kusuma is Vice President, Product Development and R&D Worldwide at Tupperware Brands Corporation. For the past 15 years he has been responsible for leading innovation, product development, and engineering to develop 150 to 200 new products every year, which are launched in over 100 countries around the world. Prior to Tupperware David worked at GE Plastics/Exatec as Global Manager, Design and Vehicle Engineering, to develop the use of polycarbonate as a viable alternative to glass in automotive window systems, and prior to that with Bayer Material Science. David has earned several university degrees in Design, Business, and Engineering, including a Ph.D. from Cranfield University in the UK.

Professor McCarthy joined the faculty of the Plastics Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1984 and is currently a Distinguished University Professor. He founded and is director of the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2). He is the Director of the BioPlastics and Medical Plastics Research Center where he is conducting research into biodegradable polymers and blends. He is currently the Editor for the Journal of Polymers and the Environment. He received his B.S. from Southeastern Massachusetts University, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Reinicker recently retired from BASF Corporation after 41 years in the plastics and pigments industries. After receiving a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, he found employment with Hercules, Ciba-Geigy, and finally BASF as a Technical Fellow. His career focus has been pigments, particularity their use in the coloration of synthetic fibers and plastics; his particular love is technical service and support of customers. He joined SPE in the early 1990s, and was a board member of the Color and Appearance Division for 13 years. He has authored numerous papers for RETEC and ANTEC and holds several patents.

Sun pioneered the injection stretch blow molding (ISBM) of polyolefins. His research led to more than 10 U.S. and international patents and patent applications. Dr. Sun’s innovations helped promote the industrial application of polyolefin ISBM. Dr. Sun also conducted leading research in polymer composites and nanocomposites. His patent pending nanocoating technology has led to significant improvement in barrier and flame retardant properties. Dr. Sun is the current President of the Chinese American Society of Plastics Engineers. He has participated in the organization of the International Polyolefins Conference for over 10 years, as well as other SPE sponsored conferences. Dr. Sun is also a dedicated educator. Many students have been trained in his courses and moved into polymer industry.

Costas Tzoganakis is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is also the CTO of Tyromer Inc, a start-up company of the university that uses rubber devulcanization technology based on a unique patented reactive extrusion process developed in the laboratory of Dr. Tzoganakis. He is an expert in the area of reactive extrusion of polymers and has authored several patents as well as over one hundred refereed publications. In 2015, Dr. Tzoganakis received the Heinz List Award from the Extrusion Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers in recognition of his outstanding achievements in reactive processing of polymers.

Karen Xiao is currently the Extrusion Technology Leader with Celgard, LLC responsible for product and process development and improvement in microporous membrane applications. Prior to this, she was the R&D director for an equipment manufacturing company responsible for the design and development of multilayer blown film dies and screws. Dr. Xiao currently serves on the board of the directors of the Extrusion Division of SPE; she was Extrusion Division Chair for 2014-2015. Karen received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and her Master’s and PhD from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.