SPE names five as Fellows

BETHEL, CONN. — Five members of the Society of Plastics Engineers are being named as SPE Fellows, for their outstanding contributions in plastics science, engineering or management.

Candidates for the Fellows honor must be sponsored by an SPE division of special interest group. The election committee considers eligible candidates on the basis of a personal history as well as written sponsorships from two SPE members.

Only 309 SPE members, including the new group, have been elected as Fellows since the honor was established in 1984.

New SPE Fellows are:

Len Czuba, president of Czuba Enterprises Inc., a Chicago-based medical device product development consulting firm. He works with clients to take medical devices and other products from concept to production. Czuba's primary focus is the selection and processing of plastics and biomedical polymers. He holds 15 patents, including several for PVC replacement materials.

Hani E. Naguib, professor of the University of Toronto and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Smart and Multifunctional Materials. He is director of the Toronto Institute for Advanced Manufacturing. His major expertise is in the manufacture of emerging materials, including smart and active materials, macromolecules and composites, and bio-based materials.

Maureen T.F. Reitman, corporate vice president and principle engineer at Exponent, an engineering and scientific consulting firm, is also director of the company's Polymer Science & Materials Chemistry Practice. Her research centers on polymer structure-property relationships and the effects of formulation, manufacturing and environment on material performance. Reitman holds three patents. She regularly publishes in peer-reviewed literature.

Jose Timmerman is executive vice president of supply chain at Tupperware Brands Corp. In more than 40 years at Tupperware, he has focused on developing and training of engineers, new product development, the manufacturing of masterbatches, development of silicone manufacturing for large parts, and modular molds. Timmerman also spearheaded process automation and optimization, using central resin distribution systems, automatic part removal, centralized part inspection and packing systems.

Shing-Chung “Josh” Wong has made major contributions to developing graphite polymer nanocomposites. He has received world-wide citations for technical leadership and for commercial product development in the building materials sector. Wong was the first to introduce nanoscale graphite platelets into thermoplastics, using a scalable extrusion compounding process to form polymer nanocomposites. He also introduced commercial electrospinning into the adhesives industry, creating a new field known as “electrospun polymer adhesives and blends.”