SPE to honour plastics industry veterans at NPE 2018

The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is set to pay credit to a number of professionals in the plastics industry at NPE 2018.

During Antec 2018 - the world’s largest plastics technical conference - SPE will award three industry veterans.

The International Award is being presented to Philip David Coates, professor at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and director of the Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC). The award, which is sponsored by SPE’s Detroit Section and Automotive division, is intended to honour professor Coates’ lifetime of work.

Professor Coates will present a talk titled Controlled Structuring of Polymers by Processing – Science, Technology and Applications on 10 May.

On 8 May, Dr Rajen M. Patel, fellow in technical service and development for packaging and specialty plastics at Dow, will be presented with the Research/Engineering Technology Award. Dr Patel will give a presentation titled the Role of Material Science and Application Development for a Successful Product Launch — Reflections on Metallocene Polyethylene Revolution.

The Fred Schwab Education Award will be awarded to John  Beaumont, president of Beaumont Technologies and founder of the American Injection Molding (AIM) Institute. Mr Beaumont will be the Plenary Speaker on May 9 and will present his talk on Advanced Industry Training & Education to Match Industry Needs.

NPE 2018 is set to take place 7-10 May at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

The annual award recipients will be honoured at Plastics Hall of Fame Gala on Sunday evening, May 6 from 6-9pm in the Linda Chapin Auditorium at the Orange County Convention Center.