2011 Award Recipients

The Society of Plastics Engineers annually recognizes excellence in the plastics industry by rewarding the efforts of individuals who have made outstanding contributions or lifetime achievements in plastics.

The International Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Society of Plastics Engineers.  It recognizes lifetime achievements in the fields of polymer science or polymer/plastics engineering. 

The Business Management Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant business achievement in the fields of plastics materials, processing, processing machinery and equipment, design and engineering. 

The SPE Education Award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions in the field of plastics education, through teaching, mentoring, and outreach. 

The SPE Research/Engineering Technology award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions in the fields of polymeric material development, processing, design, the innovative application of polymer engineering principles, and/or the fundamental understanding of the science of polymeric materials and their behavior.

• Previous Recipients
• 2012 Application

2011 Award Recipients

Dr. Musa R. Kamal
Dr. Kamal is a Professor Emeritus for Life in the Chemical Engineering Department at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.  An internationally recognized leader in the field of polymer engineering and science, he has made seminal and pioneering contributions in the areas of injection molding; the cure and rheology of thermosetting polymers; computer simulation of injection molding, blow molding and film blowing; the study and prediction of microstructure development in plastics processing; and the science and technology of polymer composites and blends. More recently, he has been an active contributor in the areas of nanocomposites and micromolding.

Dr. Kamal was cited by Plastics Technology magazine as a pioneer in “establishing the scientific basis for modelling of injection molding”, which they rated among the top 50 plastics technology innovations in the last 50 years. His research group carried out comprehensive and intensive research, including experimental studies of the dynamics of the injection molding process and of the microstructure and properties of the products.   The work of his group in mathematical modeling, computer simulation, computer control, and microstructure characterization and prediction has set the pace for the work of many researchers in these fields. Currently, engineers in the plastics industry routinely use and rely on computer simulation to qualify and optimize material selection, part and mold designs, and process conditions, thanks to Dr. Kamal’s early and continual contributions to this important field. The famous and widely used model—the so-called Kamal’s model, which governs the curing kinetics of reactive polymers—is another seminal work that exemplifies Professor Kamal’s far-reaching contributions.

Dr. Kamal has published approximately 300 papers in refereed scientific and technical journals and has given a similar number of technical presentations and seminars at professional meetings and conferences. He also holds six United States patents and has co-authored six books. He has supervised or co-supervised over 150 graduate students and researchers, many of whom are leading researchers and managers in academia, industry, and government laboratories. He has received many honors and awards from international organizations for his achievements and has contributed substantially to the profession through participation in many professional societies and activities.

Dr. Walter L. Bradley
Dr. Bradley is a Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University.  He has been a strong and effective champion of polymers and polymeric composites education for the past 33 years, at Texas A&M University (TAMU) from 1976 to 2000 and since then at Baylor.  Working with three colleagues, he helped launch the Polymeric Composites Research Center at Texas A&M University that was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research from 1977-1987. He was the primary materials scientist in the group, developing (1) new techniques for measuring Mode I and Mode II delamination toughness in continuous fiber composite materials and (2) insights into the low translation of neat resin fracture toughness into delamination toughness by making the first observations of delamination fracture of composites using a mechanical stage inside a scanning electron microscope.

Dr. Bradley expanded the work on polymers and polymeric composites at TAMU by creating and directing the Polymer Technology Center at TAMU from 1986-1989 and from 1994-2000.  He involved professors and students whose primary function was to provide R&D support for its 25 member companies and to provide educational seminars for industry. 

Dr. Bradley was the head of the composite materials division of the Offshore Technology Research Center, an industrial consortium at TAMU that was jointly funded by the National Science Foundation from 1989 to 2000. His team explored the feasibility of using composite risers for the production of oil in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico, studying the long-term degradation of polymeric composites due to absorption of seawater.  He also created an industrial consortium at TAMU to study blown film, with the focus being on the new metallocene catalyst polyethylene.  More recently, he has been involved in life prediction in plastic pipe used for hot, chlorinated water.  His work was the basis for the ASTM F2023 standard for testing pipe for this application and has worked closely with the industry in addressing problems with premature failures, including polybutylene, and the development of PEX as an alternative.

The Research/Engineering Technology Award

Dr. Rajendra Krishnaswamy
Dr. Krishnaswamy is a Senior Scientist at Metabolix, Inc./Telles LLC.  While at Metabolix, he developed  PHA’s (polyhydroxyalkanoate) molecular architecture and product formulation technology that enabled the production of blown film on a commercial scale.  It is the first time that microbial polyester has been converted into blown film on such a scale.  This accomplishment enables biobased and biodegradable films to be used in a variety of agriculture, packaging, and liner applications.  He has demonstrated the effectiveness of PHA films in agricultural mulch applications with crop growth performance similar to that of polyethylene (PE) mulch films.  The use of PHA mulch films that can be roto-tilled (for biodegradation at ambient conditions) into the soil after crop harvest has been shown to not only be an environmentally sound alternate to PE films, but a considerably more efficient farming practice.

Dr. Krishnaswamy has made advancements in developing PHA melt strength and extrusion capabilities, including physical and chemical means to enhance the thermal stability.  These discoveries were optimized to enable melt processing on conventional processing equipment.  He developed specific methods to characterize the complex time-dependent melt rheology of PHA.  In doing this, he was able to identify the unique rheological signatures of microbial polyesters.

While at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (1997-2006), Dr. Krishnaswamy developed new bimodal polymer compositions that led to a step-change in product performance (PE112 and PE125 ratings).  He developed polymer compositions for high-barrier film used in cereal packaging and high tear LLDPE films.  He discovered the unique and considerable influence exerted by branching distribution on the crystallization kinetics and the ensuing inter-lamellar morphology of PE.  In the HDPE pipe area, he discovered that residual stresses in typical pipes play a key role in brittle pipe fracture; consequently, the accepted test for this failure was of little or no use in gauging how a resin would actually perform when formed into pipe.  In the blown film area, he developed a rigorous refractometry-plus-dichroism method for measuring the often highly complex orientation patterns created in such films.  Each of these is an important advance – whether it is a conceptual insight, a new characterization approach, or a materials engineering advance made by manipulating molecular architecture.