Spontak leads list of SPE award winners

Richard Spontak, an authority in nano-technology and North Carolina State University's distinguished professor, chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and engineering, has won the International Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers.

SPE will present Spontak with the International Award — the highest annual award in the plastics industry — on March 22 at the Plastics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at NPE 2015, in Orlando, Fla. SPE's Antec conference will be held concurrently with NPE.

Spontak's main interests for research relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, nanocomposites, electron microscopy and stimuli-responsive media (electroactive and shape memory).

Spontak has won numerous honors and awards for his fundamental and applied research work. He has served on the editorial advisory board of 21 international journals, and holds editorial positions on three of them.

SPE said Spontak is an accomplished educator. He has been elected to the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Teacher, and earned the UNC System board of Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The Bethel-based SPE announced three other awards, which will be presented on March 22.

Charles Sholtis, CEO of Plastic Molding Technology Inc., a custom injection molder in El Paso, Texas, won SPE's Business Management Award. The company molds small, precision components.

PMT was named the Manufacturing Leadership Council's 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Award.

After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Sholtis has managed every aspect of PMT's business, from sales and marketing to engineering and design to manufacturing. He holds a bachelor's degree in business management from Villanova University and a master's degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Sarah Morgan, a professor in the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at the University of Southern Mississippi, has earned the Education Award.

Morgan's expertise is polymer surfaces and interfaces, involving biopolymers and nanomaterials. She won the Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics Prize in 2010.

She has been active in education and outreach at the undergraduate, graduate and K-12 grade level since joining the university in 2002, after a 14-year career in industrial research and development.

Morgan had a major role in establishing two new programs at USM: an online master's degree in polymer science and engineering with an emphasis in composites, and a bachelor's of science in polymer science and engineering.

She has been a member of SPE since 1987, and she and her students present research at SPE's Antec conferences.

Suresh Shah, a 30-year veteran of the automotive industry, has earned the Research/Engineering Technology Award.

Shah has developed key plastic components for General Motors Co. and Delphi Automotive plc.

One major innovation: Shah's idea in 1992 to develop a single-piece plastics door module to replace more than 50 metal pieces. He picked up seven awards worldwide for that invention. In 2012, the SPE Automotive Division presented that application with the prestigious Hall of Fame Product Award.

His work on a thermoplastic polyolefin skin received SPE's Interior Product Innovation Award in 2000.

Shah has picked up several other awards, including Delphi's Gold Level-Hall of Fame Innovation Award and the Engineering Society of Detroit's Gold Award as Scientist of the Year. He holds 28 international and international patents.

Shah also has been active in SPE, serving as chairman of the Automotive Division in 1999-2000, and serving as a board member. He is an SPE technical fellow and an honored service member.