SPE to honour three industry leaders at Antec 2018

Three plastics industry veterans are being honoured by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) for outstanding contributions to the sector.

The International Award – the SPE’s most distinguished award, which honours an individual’s lifetime achievement – is being awarded to Philip David Coates, professor at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and director of the Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Center, a network of four major universities and other research groups in the United Kingdom. Coates is also director of the MeDe Innovation, the Centre of Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices under the UK’s Engineering and Physical Research Council. He also directs a government-sponsored collaboration between the United Kingdom and China. He has published more than 300 papers in scientific journals, co-authored nine books, edited seven books, and holds 12 patents.

Philip David Coates.

The SPE’s Research/Engineering Technology Award has been won by Dr. Rajen M. Patel, a fellow in technical service and development for packaging and specialty plastics at Dow Chemical Co. Patel has worked in various research and applications development areas including polyolefins characterization, structure-processing-properties relationships in polyolefins, and product development in variety of applications such as hygiene and medical, oriented shrink films, collation shrink film, stretch hood films, sealants, cast stretch films, blown films, extrusion coating, tie-layers, barrier, elastic films, and fibres. He has also co-authored 22 technical peer reviewed journal publications, more than 35 articles in conference proceedings, and nine book or encyclopedia chapters. Finally, he is also a co-inventor of 51 granted US patents, 29 granted EP patents, and 32 pending patent applications.

Dr. Rajen M. Patel.

The Fred Schwab Education Award is being presented to John Beaumont, president of Erie, Pa.-based Beaumont Technologies Inc. – a developer of in-mold rheological control technologies for plastics injection molding – and also the founder of the American Injection Molding (AIM) Institute. Beaumont is also a Professor Emeritus at Penn State University where he helped develop, chaired and taught courses in the Plastics Engineering Technology Program for 25 years.

John Beaumont.

The SPE will present the three awards during its Antec 2018 conference, which takes place May 7-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The annual award recipients will be honoured at Plastics Hall of Fame Gala on May 6 in the Linda Chapin Auditorium at the Orange County Convention Center.