Michelle Tsui first became interested in the plastics industry from her university years that focused on studying the microstructure property relationships of polymer nanocomposites.
"I found this work fascinating, but as the next step in my career, I wanted to focus my efforts on helping to develop consumer products to have a more direct and immediate positive impact on people," she said.
She earned a bachelor's degree in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Her first plastics job was with Dow Inc.'s Plastics and Specialty Packaging business unit as a senior research specialist in technical service and development for flexible food packaging.
As an associate technical service and development scientist in Dow's Plastics and Specialty Packaging business unit, Tsui provides dedicated technical service to three strategic customers in the food packaging industry, is recognized as a subject-matter expert of heat sealant resins, has led or initiated 18 high-impact projects mostly focused on improving the sustainability of plastic packaging and has contributed to two U.S. patents.
"In my role, I led an application development where I managed the technology strategy around designing recyclable plastic films for improved efficiency and processability on packaging lines," Tsui said.
"I have been recognized internally for my performance in application development through technical and application expertise, leadership, teamwork, risk-taking, creativity, customer focus and generation of intellectual property," she added.
Over the past five years, Tsui has delivered a cumulative 3 billion pounds of packaging resin sales through technical service support with her customers, including 286 million pounds of resin as a result of application development of new resin products.
"The volume growth for the customers I have supported until now is 56 percent," she said.
Asked her greatest achievement, Tsui said: "I led a team to generate multiple studies looking at polyethylene selection and film design to improve the packaging efficiency and machinability of recyclable films. This included a study observing the effect of sealant selection on packaging line speeds. While the industry conventionally prioritized lower-density sealants to improve packaging line speeds, I determined through developmental efforts that sealant rheology or flow is the dominating factor for producing air-tight, sustainable pouches at high packaging line speeds."
She created a technical presentation that summarized several studies looking at polyethylene selection and design on packaging rate efficiency of recyclable pouches. The package has been shared at a global level, and Tsui promoted the findings at industry conferences worldwide.
"The external engagement through conference participation and internally through global impact continues to enhance the perception of the industry's value by demonstrating the industry's and Dow's commitment and investment towards sustainability," Tsui said.