Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award

Recent Recipients

Dr. Judit E. Puskas - 2009

Dr. Judit E. Puskas, a professor in the Department of Polymer Science at The University of Akron, will be the recipient of the 2009 Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award. The award, sponsored by the Ralph S. Graff Foundation, honors significant contributions to the advancement of the chemistry of thermoplastic elastomers.

Dr. Puskas received a Ph.D. in plastics and rubber technology in 1985, and an M.E.Sc. in organic and biochemical engineering in 1977, from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary. Her advisors were Professors Ferenc Tüdös and Tibor Kelen of Hungary, and Professor Joseph P. Kennedy at The University of Akron, in the framework of collaboration between the National Science Foundation of the U.S. and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She started her academic career in 1996. Before that she was involved in polymer research and development in the microelectronic, paint and rubber industries.

Her present interests include living carbocationic polymerization, polymerization mechanisms and kinetics, thermoplastic elastomers and polymer structure/property relationships, with a focus on the biomedical application of polymers and the combination of biopolymers and synthetic polymers.

She is a regional editor and a member of the advisory board of the European Polymer Journal, and a member of the IUPAC Working Party IV.2.1 “Structure-property relationships of commercial polymers.” Puskas has been published in more than 300 publications, including technical reports, is an inventor or co-inventor of 20 U.S. patents and applications, and has been chair or organizer of a number of international conferences. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 1999 PEO (Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canada) Medal in Research & Development, a 2000 Premier’s Research Excellence Award, and the 2004 Mercator Professorship Award from the DFG (Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation).

Dr. Puskas was group leader of Butyl Technology in the Rubber Division of Bayer (now Lanxess) before she left industry. From 1998 to 2003, she held the Bayer/NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Industrial Research Chair in elastomer technology, and was the director of the Macromolecular Engineering Research Centre at the University of Western Ontario in Canada from 1996 to 2004. In August of 2004, she joined the faculty in the Department of Polymer Science of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering of The University of Akron, where she held the Lanxess Chair in polymer science until 2008. She has been awarded her third NSF grant in 2008. As a co-inventor of the polymer used on the Taxus coronary stent, she helped UA to generate more than $5 million in license fees.

Most recently, she developed a synthetic rubber projectile that impacts, but does not penetrate, human tissue. Developed from work started at the University of Western Ontario, Puskas combined her work with butyl and SIBS to develop the bullet.

Dr. Richard J. Spontak - 2008

Dr. Richard J. Spontak, an alumni distinguished professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and engineering at N.C. State University, is a member of honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Omicron Delta Kappa, Spontak received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering (with honors/high distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983, and was later awarded a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering (under the supervision of M.C. Williams) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research with A.H. Windle in materials science and metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (U.K.), and with T. Riste in condensed matter physics at the Institut for Energiteknikk (Norway) before joining the corporate research division of the Procter & Gamble in 1990. He accepted a faculty position at N.C. State University in 1992.

Spontak has published over 250 research papers, and his work has been featured on the cover of 15 journals and one book. His research interests relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, polymer nanocomposites, electron microscopy and (supra)molecular organogels. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Sigma Xi Outstanding Research Award, the Alcoa Engineering Achievement Award, Alexander von Humboldt and Tewkesbury fellowships, the N.C. State Alumni Outstanding Research Award, the 2006 American Chemical Society (PMSE Division) Cooperative Research Award and the 2007 German Society for Electron Microscopy Ernst Ruska Prize.

Dr. Dale J. Meier - 2007

Dr. Meier received his PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles. He served as a 1st Lt., Infantry Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Since 1972, Dr. Meier has worked as a Distinguished MMI Fellow, Professor and Program Manager at the Michigan Molecular Institute. He currently holds Adjunct Professorships at Michigan Technological University and Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Meier holds memberships in prestigious associations such as the American Physical Society (Fellow), American Chemical Society, Society of Rheology, Materials Research Society, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi and Phi Lambda Upsilon. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards such as his paper “Theory of Block Copolymers” selected as one of the twelve most significant papers published in the past 50 years of the Journal of Polymer Science. Dr. Meier has edited two books and over 90 papers and patents on polymer physics, block copolymers, silicone chemistry, polymer rheology, inorganic and colloid chemistry.

Past Recipients

2009 - Judit E. Puskas
2008 - Richard J. Spontak
2007 - Dale J. Meier - Microphase Separation and Thermoplastic Elastomers
2006 - Garth L. Wilkes
2005 - Maria Ellul
2002 - Anil K. Bhowmick - RC&T Vol. 75 (2)
2001 - James McGrath - RC&T Vol. 74 (3)
1996 - Charles S. Schollenberger - RC&T Vol. 69 (3)
1993 - Geoffrey Holden - RC&T Vol. 66 (3)
1992 - William K. Witsiepe - RC&T Vol. 65 (3)
1991 - Aubert Y. Coran and Raman P. Patel - RC&T Vol. 64 (3)