The Society of Plastics Engineers has announced award winners and featured speakers for Antec 2019 in Detroit March 18-21.
Sindee Simon, who chairs the chemical engineering department at Texas Tech University, has won the Society of Plastics Engineers' highest honor, the International Award.
SPE will present Simon with the International Award at Antec 2019.
Simon will give a morning plenary speech March 18, titled "Polymer Physics: Academic Research and Impacts." Her work deals with predicting and reducing residual stresses in large composite parts as well as fundamental work aimed at understanding the nature of the glass transition and nanoconfined polymerizations. Her speech will describe potential applications and implications of the research.
Simon received the SPE's Research/Engineering Technology Award at the 2014 Antec.
SPE also announced other speakers at the Detroit Antec.
Mark Spalding will give the March 18 afternoon speech on "Process Design and Troubleshooting Using a Fundamental Approach." The fellow in packaging and specialty plastics research and development at Dow Chemical Co. will win the SPE Research/Engineering Technology Award at the Detroit Antec.
Spalding, who holds bachelor's, master's and a doctorate degrees in chemical engineering, joined Dow in 1985 and has held a number of positions in corporate R&D, polystyrene R&D and plastics R&D and the company's Inclosia Solutions business. He has writing more than 130 technical publications.
His expertise is single-screw extrusion and related polymer processing technologies.
Spalding is a fellow and honored service member of SPE.
Steve Russell, vice president of the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division, will give a keynote speech March 19. The topic: "Can We End Plastics Waste?"
Russell, who joined ACC in 1995, leads public-private partnerships and solutions-oriented programs to address sustainability of plastics. He also played a key role in creating the World Plastics Council, a group of CEOs from the world's largest chemical and plastics companies, to prioritize and fund systems to keep plastics out of the oceans.
The afternoon speaker on March 19 will be Anil K. Bhowmick, a Professor of Eminence, former head of Rubber Technology Centre and dean of postgraduate studies at IIT Kharagpur.
His speech will cover "Thermoplastic Elastomers — an Overview."
Bhowmick's main research interests include TPEs and polymer blends, nanocomposites, polymer modification, polymer technology, failure and degradation of polymers and adhesives.
He has more than 500 publications, 35 book chapters and seven co-edited books.
Deborah Mielewski, Ford Motor Co.'s senior technical leader of sustainable materials and advanced materials, will present "Advances in Automotive Plastics and Composites" on March 20.
She will cover areas such as natural fiber reinforced composites, 3D printed parts, polymeric and soft materials made from renewable feedstocks, and plastic parts made from recycled carbon dioxide.
Mielewski, a chemical engineer, has worked at Ford for 31 years. She initiated Ford's biomaterials program in 2001, and her team was the first to demonstrate soy-based foam that met the requirements for automotive seating.
Another bio-innovation: The use of wheat straw filled polypropylene for the storage bins the 2010 Ford Flex.
She holds 10 U.S. patents and has more than 60 referred journal publications.
