Bethel, Conn. — The Society of Plastics Engineers named nine new fellows who will be honored at SPE's Antec 2018 conference in Orlando, Fla., May 7-10. Antec runs during NPE2018.
The SPE fellow designation recognizes members for outstanding contributions in plastics engineering, science or technology, or in management of those activities. Candidates are sponsored by an SPE division or special interested group, and elected by the Fellows Election Committee, based on their professional record and written sponsorships from at least two SPE members.
Bethel-based SPE said 334 members of the society have been awarded the title of fellow since it started in 1984. New fellows are:
Ashok M. Adur, commercial development director for plastics at Vertellus Inc. in Parsippany, N.J. He was sponsored by the Polymer Modifiers & Additives division. Adur earned a doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and executive entrepreneurship from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Adur has more than 40 years of experience in technical and commercial management at Chemplex Co., Air Products & Chemicals, BP Chemicals, International Paper, PolyOne and Crane Plastics, as well as his own consulting business. Adur has delivered more than 85 papers and publications and has more than 70 patents.
Carol Forance Barry, who teaches at the plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. She was sponsored by the Injection Molding division. Before joining the university, Barry spent 12 years in industry. From 2004-2016 she was associate director of the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. She has written more than 100 publications.
Mehmet Demirors, senior research fellow at Dow Chemical Co., working in packaging and specialty plastics research and development. The Engineering Properties & Structural division sponsored Demirors. At Dow, his primary responsibility is developing new products, mainly in polyethylene polymers, such as Elite AT, Agility, Innate and Dowlex GM.
Demirors started working at Dow after earning degrees in polymer science from the University of Manchester. In the early part of his career, in the Netherlands, he developed high-performance styrenics, including carbon dioxide-blown Styrofoam insulation materials. He moved to Texas, where he developed the Styron A-Tech family of products.