Charles Goodyear Medal

Recent Recipients

Dr. James L. White - 2009

In recognition of his outstanding career contributions to the rubber industry, Dr. James L. White has been chosen as the 2009 recipient of the Charles Goodyear Medal. The most prestigious award given by the Rubber Division, ACS, honors an individual for outstanding invention, innovation or development which resulted in significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry. Dr. White, currently serving The University of Akron as the Chaired Morton Professor of Polymer Engineering, has excelled in the fundamental understanding of rheology and mathematical modeling of unfilled and filled rubbers and simulations of flow in batch and continuous mixing machines. He developed the first commercial twin screw extruder flow simulation software.

Dr. James Lindsay White was born in 1938. He attended the Brooklyn Technical High School and later studied Chemical Engineering at the Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute. He then joined the Department of Chemical Engineering, the research group of then A.B. Metzner at the University of Delaware. There they jointly developed the now famous White-Metzner rheological model. Professor White’s early career started in industry, working for Uniroyal from 1963-1967 where he acquired his lifelong interest in rubber science and engineering to which he has made numerous contributions.

In 1967, he joined the University of Tennessee, where he quickly rose through the academic ranks ultimately becoming the originator of the Polymer Engineering M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs. His interest turned to process induced structuring, and in collaboration with such able colleagues as Joseph. E. Spruiell and John F. Fellers, he rapidly dove into the new areas of polymer melt/solution, fiber spinning, film blowing and biaxial stretching processes, as well as injection molding. During this time, his contributions expanded into liquid crystalline polymers and developing unique processes to manufacture biaxially oriented lyotropic liquid crystalline films and a fundamental understanding of solidification from solution processing.

In 1983, Dr. White moved to The University of Akron, where he started the Polymer Engineering Department and served as chair and center director. At Akron, he turned his attention to rubber processing and compounding, experimentally studying and simulating flow in internal mixers and pin barrel extruders, as well as twin screw extrusion with and without reactions taking place in the latter process. The later activities culminated with the first commercially successful software to simulate flow in twin screw extrusion.

In this period, he started a new society now called the Polymer Processing Society. From its inception in 1985, this society was organized to be international in character. Shortly after formation of the society, a new journal, International Polymer Processing was initiated and he successfully served as editor-in-chief from 1986 until 2004.

Professor White has published over 500 (and counting) papers in international journals. He has also published eight books on subjects ranging from rheology, twin screw extrusion, rubber (rubber processing) polyolefins and polymer compounds plastic elastomers. His book “Rubber Processing” is considered by many a seminal work that has aided engineers and scientists alike. Among the numerous awards he has received for his accomplishments include:

Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology
Yuko -Sho Award, Society of Rheology, Japan 1984
Society of Plastics Engineers, Education Award 1987
Research Award , Society of Plastics Engineers, 1992
The Heinz Herrmann Twin Screw Extrusion award of the Extrusion Division of Society of Plastics Engineers.

Professor Joseph P. Kennedy - 2008

Professor Joseph P. Kennedy, Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Chemistry of The University of Akron, has contributed in many ways to both rubber science and rubber technology, particularly in the fields of carbocationic polymerization, rubbery biomaterials and macromolecular engineering.

Kennedy received the equivalent of a B.Sc. Chemistry from the University of Budapest in Hungary in 1948. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Vienna in Austria in 1954 and an M.B.A. in general business from Rutgers University in Newark, NJ, in 1961.

He started his career in industry as a research chemist at Cellanese in 1957 and moved to Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), rising to the highest technical level (equivalent to VP) in Exxon Research. Even in industry, he published seminal papers on the mechanism and kinetics of butyl polymerization that are still in use today.

He became a professor at Akron in 1970, playing a fundamental role in the foundation and development of the College of Polymer Science & Polymer Engineering. His seminal academic work had crucial importance in the Department of Polymer Science, which is ranked as the #2 graduate academic program in polymer science in the nation.

Professor Kennedy has authored three books and 700 refereed publications in the top polymer journals. He is a founding co-editor of Polymer Bulletin and has served on numerous editorial boards. He has chaired two Gordon Conferences, and was chair of the 35th International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry symposium on macromolecules in 1994.

He has been issued 96 patents and numerous awards. He is the inventor of the polystyrene-polyisobutylene-polystyrene block copolymer TPE that is FDA approved as the polymeric coating on the Taxus Drug Eluting Stent. This rubber revolutionized interventional cardiology, and more than a million of the stents have been implanted since the 2004 FDA approval. His developments of versatile mechanisms for producing telechelic polymers, star polymers, dendrimers and amphiphilic networks are most noteworthy. Some of his awards include two American Chemical Society Awards, one in Polymer Chemistry (1985) and Applied Polymer Science (1995), and he was the recipient of the Rubber Division’s George S. Whitby Award in 1996 for excellence in teaching and research.

Professor Kennedy has trained more than 140 students and PDFs who have all been successful as industrial leaders or professors internationally. His mentorship is also unparalleled.

At 79 years young, he is still in his office every day, including Saturday, working on new rubbers he keeps inventing.

Dr. Karl-Alfred Grosch - 2007

Dr. Grosch, is a pioneer in friction and wear phenomena. After finishing his degree course, Dr. Grosch became a Scientific Officer and started on an external PhD of London University under the supervision of Prof. D Tabor of Cambridge and L. R. G. Treloar of Manchester University. He became Senior and later Principal Scientific Officer, working further together with Dr. Schallamach. Dr. Grosch later joined the European Tire Development Center of Uniroyal in Germany as Tire Evaluation Manager. In 1974, he became Development Manager for Commercial Tires, until his retirement in 1988. He then worked as a free lance consultant for a number of rubber and tire producing firms and again took up research on friction and abrasion of rubber privately and developed the concept of the LAT 100 Laboratory Friction and Abrasion Test Equipment. Dr. Grosch also developed testing programs for the LAT 100 for wet traction, friction on ice, abrasion over a wide range of severities and rolling resistance and suitable software for the evaluation of results including road test simulations. He was awarded the Colwyn Medal of the British Institute of Materials. Dr. Grosch presented a number of papers at Rubber Division, ACS meetings and International Rubber Conferences. He also has had many papers published in Rubber Chemistry and Technology, in Proc Royal Soc. and other journals and wrote chapters on friction and abrasion in several books.

Past Recipients

2009 - James L. White
2008 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Rubber Research In The Service Of Mankind, RC&T 81(2) 169
2007 - Karl-Alfred Grosch - Rubber Friction and Abrasion in Relation to Tire Traction and Wear, RC&T 80 (3) 379
2006 - Robert F. Landel - A Two-Part Tale: The WLF Equation and Beyond Linear Viscoelasticity, RC&T 79 (3) 381
2003 - Graham J. Lake - Fracture Mechanics and its Application to Failure in Rubber Articles, RC&T Vol. 76 (3) 567
2001 - Yasuyuki Tanaka - Structural Characterization of Natural Polyisoprenes-Solve the Mystery of Natural Rubber Based on Structural Study, RC&T Vol. 74 (3) 355
2000 - Jack L. Koenig - Spectroscopic Characterization of the Molecular Structure of Elastomeric Networks, RC&T Vol. 73 (3) 385
1999 - James E. Mark - Improved Elastomers Through Control of Network Chain-Length Distributions, RC&T Vol. 72 (3) 465
1998 - Jean-Baptiste Donnet - Black and White Fillers and Tire Compound, RC&T Vol. 71 (3) 323
1997 - Adel F. Halasa - Preparation and Characterization of Solution SIBR Via Anionic Polymerization, RC&T Vol. 70 (3) 295
1996 - Siegfried Wolff - Chemical Aspects of Rubber Reinforcement by Fillers, RC&T Vol. 69 (3) 325
1995 - Aubert Y. Coran - Vulcanization: Conventional and Dynamic, RC&T Vol. 68 (3) 351
1994 - Alan G. Thomas - The Development of Fracture Mechanics for Elastomers, RC&T Vol. 67 (3) G50
1993 - Leo Mandelkern - The Role of Elastomers in the Study of Polymer Crystallization, RC&T Vol. 66 (3) G61
1992 - Ronald S. Rivlin - The Elasticity of Rubber, RC&T Vol. 65 (3) G51
1991 - Edwin J. Vandenberg - Reflections on the Past and Future of Polyether Elastomers and on Redox Emulsion Polymerization, RC&T Vol. 64 (3) G56
1990 - Alan N. Gent - Cavitation of Rubber: A Cautionary Tale, RC&T Vol. 63 (3) G49
1989 - Jean-Marie Massoubre - The Radial Tyre, A Peaceful Revolution, RC&T Vol. 62 (3) G83
1988 - Herman F. Mark - Elastomers: Past, Present, and Future, RC&T Vol. 61 (3) G73
1987 - Norman R. Legge - Thermoplastic Elastomers, RC&T Vol. 60 (3) G83
1986 - Leonard Mullins - Engineering with Rubber: Achievements and Problems, RC&T Vol. 59 (3) G69
1985 - Maurice Morton - Rubber Enters the Polymer Age, RC&T Vol. 58 (3) G75
1984 - Herman E. Schroeder - Facets of Innovation, RC&T Vol. 57 (3) G86
1983 - J. Reid Shelton - Oxidation and Stabilization of Rubbers, RC&T Vol. 56 (3) G67
1982 - Adolf Schallamach - What Happens Between Tire and Road, RC&T Vol. 55 (3) G70
1981 - John D. Ferry - Probing Macromolecular Motions through Viscoelasticity, RC&T Vol. 54 (3) G72
1980 - Samuel E. Horne, Jr. - Polymerization of Diene Monomers by Ziegler Type Catalysts, RC&T Vol. 53 (3) G68
1979 - Francis P. Baldwin - Modifications of Low Functionality Elastomers, RC&T Vol. 52 (3) G77
1978 - Frank Herzegh - The Evolution of the Tubeless Tire, RC&T Vol 51 (3) G72
1977 - James D. D'Ianni - Fun and Frustrations with Synthetic Rubber, RC&T Vol. 50 (3) G67
1976 - Earl Warrick - Silicone Rubber: A Perspective, RC&T Vol. 49 (4) 909
1975 - Otto Bayer - The Odyssey of an Invention, RC&T Vol. 48 (3) G73
1974 - Joe C. Krejci - The Evolution of Oil Furnace Blacks, RC&T Vol. 47 (2) G32
1973 - Arnold M. Collins - The Discovery of Polychloroprene, RC&T Vol. 46 (2) G45
1972 - Frederick W. Stavely - Lithium Polymerization Catalysts, RC&T Vol. 45 (4) G53
1971 - Harold J. Osterhof - Creativity in Rubber Industry Research, RC&T Vol. 44 (3) G45
1970 - Samuel D. Gehman - Physics Does It in Rubber Research, RC&T Vol. 43 (4) G82
1969 - Robert M. Thomas - Early History of Butyl Rubber, RC&T Vol. 42 (4) G90
1968 - Paul J. Flory - Molecular Interpretation of Rubber Elasticity, RC&T Vol. 41 (4) G41
1967 - N. Bekkedahl - Crystallization of Natural Rubber, RC&T Vol. 40 (3) G25
1966 - E. A. Murphy - Some Early Adventures with Latex, RC&T Vol. 39 (3) G73
1965 - B. S. Garvey - Rubber Chemistry: A Great Adventure, RC&T Vol. 38 (3) G11
1964 - A. E. Juve - On Testing Rubber, RC&T Vol. 37 (2) G24
1963 - W. J. Sparks - Functionality of Elastomers
1962 - Melvin Mooney - Some Neglected Problems in the Rheology of High Polymers, RC&T Vol. 35 (5) G27
1961 - H. A. Winklemann - Coatings for Rubber
1960 - W. B. Wiegand - Determinants in Research, RC&T Vol. 35 (4) xxiv
1959 - F. H. Banbury - People and the Banbury Mixer
1958 - J. C. Patrick - Comments on the Polysulfide Polymers
1957 - A. W. Carpenter - The Tower of Babel
1956 - S. M. Cadwell - Scientific Contributions to the Rubber Industry, Rubber Age 80 (10), 91
1955 - R. P. Dinsmore - Specifications for a Rubber Chemist, Rev. gen caout-chouc 33, 120
1954 - G. S. Whitby - Reflections on Rubber Research, Ind. Eng. Chem. 47, 806
1953 - J. T. Blake - The Future of Rubber, Chem. Eng. News 31, 4290
1952 - H. E. Simmons - Out of the Past
1951 - W. C. Geer - Strategy in Rubber Research, Ind. Eng. Chem. 43, 2436
1950 - C. C. Davis - Some of the Real Pioneers of the Rubber Industry, India Rubber World 123 (4), 433
1949 - H. L. Fisher - Rubber Research and the Need for a Rubber Research Institute in the United States
1948 - George Oenslager
1946 - Ira Williams - Vulcanization of Rubber with Sulfur, Ind. Eng. Chem. 39, 901
1944 - W. L. Semon - Research Leading to Commercial Butadien Synthetic Rubber, Chem. Eng. News, 24, 2900 (1946); India Rubber World 115, 364, 373
1942 - L. B. Sebrell - The Second Mile, Ind. Eng. Chem. 35, 736 (1943); RC&T Vol. 16, 713
1941 - David Spence