Meet the Class: Plastics Hall of Fame announces 2024 inductees

Plastics Hall of Fame 2024 inductee Joseph Gerber. Photo Credit: Plastics Hall of Fame

The Plastics Hall of Fame has selected 17 new members for its Class of 2024 who will be inducted during the upcoming NPE2024 trade show in Orlando, Fla., in May.

The group includes both living inductees as well as those who are being inducted posthumously, including two “historical” plastics pioneers.

Established in 1972, the Plastics Hall of Fame now has 236 members representing 10 countries, including five Nobel Prize winners in chemistry. Inductees into the Plastics Hall of Fame are chosen based strictly on their accomplishments, and its members represent all aspects of the plastics industry.

The members of the Class of 2024 are:

• Rainer Armbruster, Foboha GmbH, Germany, innovator of injection cube molds. Armbruster is known as “the world’s most innovative moldmaker,” Hall of Fame officials said, and holds 35 patents.
• Luigi Bandera, Costruzioni Meccaniche Luigi Bandera SpA, Italy, founder and pioneer in extrusion equipment. Bandera, who passed away in 2003, headed “one of the world’s most well-known manufacturers of plastic blown film and sheet extrusion machinery,” officials said.
• Dr. Joseph Biesenberger, Polymer Processing Institute (PPI), U.S. Biesenberger, who passed away in 1998, was a founder of PPI and an expert in the devolatilization of polymers.
• Dr. Jacque Brandenberger, La Cellophane SA and DuPont, France, was a Swiss chemist and textile engineer who invented cellophane in 1908.
• Michael Cude, Coeur Inc. and ITW Medical, U.S., innovator in medical plastics replacing stainless steel and glass. He also led the startup and operation of nine medical plastics manufacturing plants in the U.S., Mexico, and Ireland.
• Dr. Arthur Eichengrun, Cellon-Werke, Germany. Eichengrun co-developed the first soluble cellulose acetate materials in 1903, called Cellit, and influenced the early development of plastic injection molding.
• Joseph Gerber, Gerber Scientific Inc., U.S. Gerber, who passed away in 1996, was a “prolific inventor,” Hall of Fame officials said, and he and his engineers transformed apparel and furniture production, sign making, prescription eyeglass fabrication, commercial printing, and electronic products manufacturing.
• Arthur Haag, PureChem and Neutrex, U.S. Haag was an innovator in the manufacture of purity titanium catalysts, and – later in his career – the founder and head of Neutrex, which produces and sells Purgex purging compounds. Haag passed away last year at age 93.
• Wendy Hoenig, Dow, and H&H Business Development, U.S.  As the vice president of R&D with Dow Coating Solutions, Hoenig and her global team launched new businesses and product lines that now contribute over US$1 billion in sales to Dow.
• Dr. Walter Kaminsky, University of Hamburg, Germany. Kaminsky pioneered major new families of catalysts that made a global impact on the production of plastics, Hall of Fame officials said, and “sparked a revolution that has been utilized by nearly every polyolefin producer in the world.”
• Dr. Chihiro Kanagawa, Shintech and Shin-Etsu, Japan. Kanagawa, who passed away last year, was the chairman of Shin-Etsu Chemical and Vinyl Environment Council, and the founder of Shintech Inc., which is now the world’s largest manufacturer of PVC.
• Dr. Cato Laurencin, University of Connecticut, U.S. Laurencin is a surgeon who he has achieved breakthrough approaches in the use of plastics in medical devices and biologics for musculoskeletal applications. “His versatile use of polymers for medical purposes has resulted in many products that improve human health,” Hall of Fame officials said.
• Wolfgang Meyer, Plastics Business Consultants LLC, U.S. Meyer has been president at North American subsidiaries of three German extrusion equipment manufacturers – Battenfeld, SIG Kautex, and W. Muller – each of which is recognized as technology leaders in their fields.
• Dr. Chris Rauwendaal, Rauwendaal Extrusion Engineering Inc., U.S. An extrusion technology inventor and expert, Rauwendaal has taught seminars on extrusion and related topics to thousands of people in the U.S. and 22 other countries throughout the world. “He also made significant contributions to extrusion theory,” Hall of Fame officials said.
• Dr. G. Victor Sammet Sr., founded Northern Industrial Chemical Co., U.S. A pioneer in the early days of plastics, Sammet funded the start of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1937. SPI was later renamed the Plastics Industry Association.
• Dr. Nick Schott, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, U.S. As a University of Massachusetts Lowell professor, Schott’s pioneering teaching, research, and consultancy in plastics processes led to groundbreaking developments that revolutionized the plastic industry, Hall of Fame officials said.
• Kurt Swogger, Dow Chemical and Molecular Rebar Design Inc., U.S. Swogger was a key technology and business leader – especially of polyolefins – during his tenure at Dow Chemical from 1972 to 2008, and then founded Molecular Rebar Design, which developed a new form of carbon-nanotubes for plastics and rubber reinforcement and for energy storage devices.

Inductees into the Plastics Hall of Fame are chosen based strictly on their accomplishments, and its members represent all aspects of the plastics industry. Nominees are first considered by a nominating committee and then the Plastics Hall of Fame board before finally being voted on by living members of the group.

The induction ceremony for the Class of 2024 is scheduled for May 5 in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., prior to the opening of NPE2024. NPE2024 will run from May 6-10 at the Orange Country Convention Centre.

For more information, visit www.plasticshof.org.