George Stafford Whitby Award

Recent Recipients

Dr. James E. McGrath - 2009

Dr. James E. McGrath, distinguished professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech, is the recipient of the George S. Whitby Award for Distinguished Teaching and Research. The award, sponsored by Cabot, honors outstanding international teachers of chemistry and polymer science, and recognizes innovative research, as well as outstanding contributions to the integration of chemistry and polymer science into our educational system.

Dr. McGrath is a native of the Adirondacks in New York, where he earned his first degree in chemistry from Siena College, near Albany. He worked in cellulose chemistry for about three years at Rayonier, which included service in the U.S. Army in Texas. He joined Goodyear Tire and Rubber in 1959 and for several years conducted research on synthetic rubber. He initiated his graduate studies at The University of Akron, earning his Master’s in 1964. His Ph.D. research (completed in 1967 under the direction of the late Maurice Morton) involved structure/physical property relationships in rubbers, as well as in organolithium anionic living polymerization, with a particular focus on block copolymers.

Dr. McGrath then spent eight years at Union Carbide, working in the area of engineering thermoplastics, polyurethanes, siloxane chemistry and gas phase polyethylene processes. He joined Virginia Tech in 1975 as an assistant professor, and was named full professor five years later. He was instrumental in starting the undergraduate and graduate polymer chemistry programs at that institution. He was appointed director of the Materials Institute there in 1987. In 1989, he and colleagues in chemistry and engineering at Virginia Tech established the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for High Performance Polymeric Adhesives and Composites. This changed his focus to phosphorous-containing polymers, and thermoplastic toughened adhesives and structural composites, particularly for aerospace.

Dr. McGrath is also known for the ACS hands-on short courses at Virginia Tech, which he instituted in 1976 with colleagues Garth Wilkes and Tom Ward (for which they won the ACS P.J. Flory Education Award, ACS, Division of Polymer Chemistry, in April 2004). They estimate that about 5,000 industrial, governmental and academic participants have taken the week-long courses, which range in subject from principles of polymer chemistry to introduction to polymeric adhesives and composites.

Dr. McGrath is currently a co-director of the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute and the University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. His fundamental chemistry has included many contributions to organolithium polymerizations over a period of nearly 30 years, and in ring opening polymerization with a specialty in epoxides and organosiloxane chemistry, where he generated a number of new synthetic methods to produce functional oligomers. He has also maintained an active research interest in the area of polyarylene ethers. His current focus is on polymeric materials for membranes, including fuel cells, reverse osmosis water purification membranes, membranes for the electrolysis of water and gas separations.

Dr. McGrath has received a number of prestigious awards, including:

Elected, National Academy of Engineering, 1994
Herman F. Mark Award, ACS, Division of Polymer Chemistry, November 1996
Inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame by the Society of Plastics Engineers, 1997
Recipient of the “The International Award” from the Society of Plastics Engineers, April, 1998
2001 Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award, Rubber Div., ACS, April, 2001
Recipient of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Applied Polymer Science, April 2002
Recipient (with T.C. Ward and G.L. Wilkes) of the P.J. Flory Education Award, ACS, Division of Polymer Chemistry, April 2004
Recipient of the American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry, 2008

Dr. McGrath has 50 patents and over 400 publications, has graduated 107 MS and Ph.D. students, mentored over 70 post doctoral fellows, and has literally given hundreds of lectures worldwide. He remains one of the leaders in polymer science and engineering.

Dr. Frank N. Kelley - 2008

Dr. Frank N. Kelley, Dean Emeritus for the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and Professor Emeritus with The University of Akron, was born in Akron, OH, attended the University of Akron, where he earned a B.S. in chemistry, an M.S. and a Ph.D. (1961) in polymer chemistry. Additionally, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honorus causa, from The University of Akron in 2006. While attending the university, he was employed by Goodyear Tire & Rubber and later the Institute of Polymer Science. After graduating, he was employed by Union Carbide until entering active duty with the United States Air Force.

He was assigned to the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, Edwards AFB, CA, and at the completion of his military tour, in July 1964, he was employed as a civilian. He conducted research and managed technical programs associated with solid-propellant mechanical properties. He rose though the ranks and in 1971 was named Chief Scientist. In September 1973, Kelley transferred to the Air Force Materials Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, to occupy a similar position as Chief Scientist.

In September 1976, he was promoted to Director of the laboratory. In September 1978, he returned to his alma mater to serve as a professor and Director of the Institute of Polymer Science. He was appointed to the position of Dean when the College was formed in July 1988. As Professor of Polymer Science, he has supervised the research of 18 Ph.D. and six masters degree graduates.

As Dean, Kelley was the Chief Administrator of the largest academic polymer program in the United States. The college serves approximately 250 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In addition to two academic departments and two research institutes, the college houses several research centers, an applied research services lab supporting the polymer industry, a training center for plastics and rubber technologists, and hosts the headquarters of the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society Inc.. He has been a member of the Rubber Division for 29 years.

He served on the boards of the Great Lakes Science Center and Ohio Polymer Enterprise Development Corporation. He served for 13 years as a director of Premix Inc., an Ohio based polymer composites company, and currently serves on the board of Romeo RIM, Inc., a Michigan based composites company. He is a senior corporate advisor to The Reserve Group, a management company based in Akron, OH.
Kelley has received the Rubber Age Award, the AIAA Outstanding Technical Contribution Award, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Civilian Meritorious Service Medal twice (in 1967 and 1978) and the Exceptional Civilian Service Award from the Secretary of the Air Force. He received the Distinguished Award of Council from the Akron Council of Engineering and Scientific Societies, and the Distinguished Sales and Marketing Award from Sales and Marketing Executives International. He has been awarded the Society of Plastics Engineers Education Award and was a recipient of the Northern Ohio Live Special Award of Honor. An active researcher, teacher and consultant, his publications have focused on the relationship of molecular structure to mechanical properties of polymeric materials and composites.

Dr. Burak Erman - 2007

Dr. Erman received his BS and MS in Civil Engineering at Robert College in Istanbul. He completed his PhD at Istanbul Technical University in the field of Materials Science where he investigated the viscoelastic properties of fiber reinforced epoxy composites. He served on the faculty of Robert College School of Engineering. He later served on the faculty of Bogazici University from 1971 to 1998, as an Assistant, Associate and Full Prof. of materials science, mechanics and polymer science courses. He founded the now well-known Center for Polymer Research at Bogazici University. In 1998, Erman moved to Sabanci University, where he designed and started the Materials Science and Chemistry program in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences. He is currently a Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Koc University. Erman joined the research group of Prof. Paul J. Flory at Stanford University in 1976 as a Post-Doctoral fellow where their collaboration continued until 1985 as a visiting Research Scholar both at Stanford University and at IBM Research Center. His other scientific collaborations include the Max-Planck Institute für Polymerforschung in Mainz, and ESPCI, Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Structurale et Macromoleculaire, He has been collaborating with Prof. J.E. Mark at Cincinnati University on rubber elasticity since 1987. Erman has over 200 scientific papers in refereed journals, two books and three edited books. Burak Erman is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences. He served on the Science Board of the Turkish Science Foundation TUBITAK, on the editorial boards of Computational Polymer Science and Polymer Gels and Networks. He received the Simavi Science Award and the TUBITAK Science Award.

Past Recipients

2009 - James E. McGrath
2008 - Frank N. Kelley
2007 - Burak Erman - Can We Build Intelligent Polymer Networks?
2006 - Gregory G. McKenna
2005 - Richard J. Farris
2004 - Roderick P. Quirk
2003 - Sadhan K. De - RC&T Vol. 76 (2)
2002 - Liliane Bokobza - RC&T Vol. 75 (2)
2001 - Gary Hamed - RC&T Vol. 74 (3)
1998 - Jean-Maurice Vergnaud - RC&T Vol. 71 (3)
1997 - Anil K. Bhowmick - RC&T Vol. 70 (3)
1996 - Joseph P. Kennedy - RC&T Vol. 69 (3)
1995 - Harry L. Frisch - RC&T Vol. 68 (3)
1994 - Jack L. Koenig - RC&T Vol. 67 (3)
1993 - Donald J. Plazek - RC&T Vol. 66 (3)
1992 - Raymond B. Seymour - RC&T Vol. 65 (3)
1991 - James E. Mark - RC&T Vol. 64 (3)
1990 - Howard L. Stephens - RC&T Vol. 63 (3)
1989 - Jean-Baptiste Donnet - RC&T Vol. 62 (3)
1988 - Leo Mandelkern - RC&T Vol. 61 (3)
1987 - Alan N. Gent - RC&T Vol. 60 (3)