Scientific Committee of the 2nd International Symposium on Plastics Technology

Prof. Patrick Anderson

After a short period at industry Patrick Anderson made a conscious choice for academics and started his academic career as a university lecturer in 2000 at Eindhoven University of Technology. Originally trained as Applied Mathematician he moved into Engineering and was appointed as full professor (structure and rheology of complex fluids) in 2011 at TU/e. During this period, he has held appointed visiting professorships at UCSB, Stanford and ETH Zurich. Since 2021 he has been appointed an Adjunct Professor at Gyeongsang National University, Korea, following several years of successful collaborations. He is co-director of the TU/e Materials Technology Institute since 2014 (with > 100 PhD students and celebrated 25 years in 2019). He is scientific director of the TU/e HPC and HPDA Lab. In addition, he is the scientific director of Eindhoven Polymer Laboratories (EPL) and chairs the pillar Polymer Science & Technology of the Institute of Complex Molecular Science (ICMS). Anderson has been an elected Member-at-Large of the Society of Rheology in 2015-2017. In addition, he is scientific director of the Dutch Society of Rheology since 2012 and international representative in the European and International Societies of Rheology. Anderson is an appointed member of the International Polymer Processing Society Lambda Award Committee (receiving the award personally in 2008). The group supports spin-off companies such as IME Technologies, which develops and sells the Pirouette PVT apparatus developed in our group and the electro-spin cabinet.  Our in-house developed finite-element TFEM code is on the leading edge in the field of computational rheology and used by academic and industrial partners.

Prof. Olga Sousa Carneiro

Olga Sousa Carneiro is Associate Professor, w/ habilitation, at the Department of Polymer Engineering (DEP) of University of Minho (UM), Portugal. In the last decade she was/is one of the proponents of the Product Design graduation program at UM; National Coordinator of the Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing focal area of the MIT-Portugal Program and Director of the corresponding PhD Program; Head of DEP; member of the administration board of two university-industry interface units (PIEP and CEiiA); member of the School of Engineering Council, at UM, and member of the Pedagogical Council of the School of Architecture, Arts and Design, at UM. She teaches polymer topics in several courses of graduation, MSc and PhD programs in Engineering, Product Design, and Visual Arts. Her research activity is carried out at IPC – Institute for Polymer and Composites, of University of Minho, being focused on polymer extrusion, 3D printing, rheology and development of new products. She is/was involved in some tens of scientific projects and applied research projects carried out in collaboration with Portuguese and international companies. She edited 2 books, and is co-author of 14 book chapters and 73 papers published in international journals.

Prof. Phil Coates

Phil is Professor of Polymer Engineering at the University of Bradford, and Director of the internationally recognised Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre, at the leading edge of in-process measurements, ultraprecision processing and healthcare technologies (www.polyeng.com). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1995, and was Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Bradford (2004-11).  He has published extensively – over 600 papers in scientific journals and refereed conference proceedings, and has co-authored 7 books, and edited 8 books, and has given numerous keynote and plenary lectures and organised many international conferences since 1985.  He holds 11 patents.  His research has substantial support from UK Government, and industry worldwide.  He is Chief Editor of the IoM3 international journal, Plastics, Rubber and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering.  Key international awards include most recently the 2017 PR China National Award for Science and Technology Co-operation presented by President Xi Jinping; the 2018 SPE International Award and the 2018 JLWhite Innovation Award of the Polymer Processing Society.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Rainer Dahlmann

Rainer Dahlmann is associate Professor at the RWTH Aachen University and member of the scientific board of the IKV - Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen. After studying Physics he received a doctoral degree at the faculty for mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University in the field of plasma and surface technology. He is Head of the Centre for Analysis and Testing of Plastics (KAP) at IKV, which he built up in 2003 and which he directs since then. Furthermore he is member of the scientific board and of the institute management. Dahlmann’s fields of activity and research are plasma technology, additive manufacturing, materials technology, testing and analysis as well as failure analysis for plastics products.

He is chairman of the expert committee “Failure Analysis for Plastics Products” of the VDI and member of several other expert committees. He participates in research projects and is a board member of the Collaborative Research Center TR87. Professor Dahlmann gives the lectures “Material Science of Plastics“, „Functionalisation of Plastics Surfaces“ and „Additive Manufacturing in Plastics Processing” at RWTH Aachen University.

Prof. Dr. Clemens H. Holzer

He studied polymer engineering and science PES at the Montanuniversität Leoben MUL, Austria. Eight years he worked in Switzerland in the industry (Huber+Suhner, research engineer - head of the research group - Head of Production - Head of Research and Development in a business unit).
After his industrial career he moved to the University of Applied Sciences North Western Switzerland FHNW, Olten and Windisch, as deputy head of the Institute of Polymer Nanotechnology INKA and associate professor at the FHNW.
Since 2009 he is head of Polymer Processing and full professor at MUL. Main research themes are injection moulding, extrusion, compounding, recycling, additive manufacturing, simulation and determination of material data.
From 2009 to 2010 he was the leading manager of the new building “Center for PES”. In 2010 he founded the Department of PES and was the head of it for the first 3 years period.
He is member of the strategy board at Polymer Competence Center Leoben PCCL, cooperating closely with the Kunststoffcluster and Ecoplus in Austria, member of the board of the Österreichischer Carbon Cycle Circle ÖCC2 and active member of the Austrian Scientific Society for Production Engineering ÖWGP.
International he is e.g. the representative for Austria in the Polymer Processing Society PPS and board member of the Wissenschaftlicher Arbeitskreis Kunststofftechnik WAK, Germany.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann

Dr. Christian Hopmann holds the position of Chair for Plastics Processing and is director of the IKV – Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Crafts at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. He is as well co-founder of the AZL – Aachen Center for Lightweight Production and Vice Dean of the faculty for mechanical engineering. Being deeply involved into fundamental and applied research in the area of plastics technology, he is principal investigator of the Federal Cluster of Excellence “Internet of Production” and member of the related steering committee as well as deputy spokesman of the DFG funded special research area “precision melt engineering” (SFB 1120) and principal investigator of the special research area “Pulsed High Power Plasmas for the Synthesis of Nanostructured Functional Layers” (SFB TR-87). After studying mechanical engineering, he received his doctoral degree from RWTH Aachen University. Following a senior vice-director position at IKV, he started his industrial career in 2005 at the plastics processing company RKW SE, latterly as Managing Director of RKW Sweden A.B. in Helsingborg. He participated in the program for executive development at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Hopmann received the innovation award of Germany’s federal state North Rhine-Westphalia in 2014 and has been appointed visiting professor of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing/China in 2017. In 2019 he was awarded fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers, CT/USA and serves as international representative of the Polymer Processing Society since 2021. Among others, his research focus on digitalization and simulation of plastics processes and performance of plastics parts.

Prof. Dr. Shih-Jung Liu

Dr. Shih-Jung Liu is currently Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Chang Gung University of Taiwan. He received the Bachelor degree from Mechanical Engineering of National Taiwan University in 1986, and earned his Master and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1989 and 1992 respectively. Dr. Liu had been working as a Post-doctoral research fellow at McMaster University of Canada, and also been as a visiting professor to the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Yamagata University in Japan and Aachen University of Applied Science in Germany. Dr. Liu has been involved in pioneering work on the concepts of various polymer processing techniques. His research work deals with theoretical and experimental processing of various polymeric materials. Dr. Liu is worldwide known for the development of water-assisted injection molding systems and significant accomplishments in gas-assisted injection molding. He is also recognized for his works in micro/nano-molding, rotational molding, ultrasonic/hot plate welding, microstructure embossing, as well as the processing of biodegradable materials, drug delivery system, tissue engineering, and nanofibers. Dr. Liu received the Morand Lambla Award from the International Polymer Processing Society in 2008. He is the author of more than 300 scientific publications including 200 referred journal papers, editor and co-editor of 6 books and the author of 15 patents. Dr. Liu is also serving as the Associate Editors for Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology and Journal of Polymer Engineering as well as the Guest Editor of Nanomaterials, Polymers, Pharmaceutics, and Membrane Journals.

Prof. Abderrahim Maazouz

Abderrahim Maazouz is a Full Professor (exceptional class) of Polymer Engineering and Science in the Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering (IMP) at National Institute of Applied Science at Lyon (INSA de Lyon, University of Lyon), France. He was the director of Interdisciplinary Research Group in Polymer Processing (PPF/INSA de Lyon). Currently, he is the leader of the “Polymer Structure – Rheology/processing and Modeling” center in the lab of IMP-UMR CNRS 5223.  From 2009 to 2018, he was also the Director of the "Polymer and composites processing “in the mechanical department of INSA de Lyon (France). Since 2011 to 2019, he was member elected at the “National Consul of Universities (CNU- France).
Prof. Maazouz’s research interests cover wide domains, including i) Structure/processing/property relationships of polymers; ii) Rheology and process engineering of polymer materials, biopolymers and their composites; iii) Interfacial phenomena in the polymer and composites processing; iv) Monitoring and optimisation of polymer processes. He supervises more than forty (45) PhD and post-doctoral students with financing from the Ministry of Research and industry. All these doctors now have high-level positions in either industry or academia, in France as well as abroad.
He established numerous international collaborations (Canada, USA, Australia, Vietnam, Morocco and Tunisia). He is a member of the Polymer Processing Society (PPS), Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Society of Rheology (SoR), American Chemical Society (ACS) and European Society of Rheology (ESR).

Prof. Dr. Paula Moldenaers

Paula Moldenaers obtained a master degree in Chemical Engineering in 1980 and a PhD in 1987, both at KU Leuven. Her research interest deal with the rheology and morphology development in complex fluids. The latter include polymer blends, composites and  food products. The research aims at providing a rational, science-based methodology for the processing of such complex fluids. She has published over 260 peer review publications, with over 9000 citations and an h-index of 50 (WoS all databases). She became a full professor at KU Leuven in 1998 and is head of the Department of Chemical Engineering since 2013.  Paula Moldenaers has received several international awards, including twice the publication award of the Journal of Rheology and the Annual Award of the British Society of Rheology. In 2006 she was elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Arts and Sciences and in 2016 elected fellow of the Society of Rheology (USA). Since 2011 she is the international representative of Belgium in the committee of the International Polymer Processing Society.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Pantani

Roberto Pantani if Full Professor of Transport Phenomena at the University of Salerno (Italy) and is currently the Director of the Department of Industrial Engineering. 
His main research interests focus on: analysis and simulation of injection moulding of thermoplastics; structure development in polymer processing; volume accuracy and stability in polymer processing; processing and degradation of biodegradable polymers. In these fields he is the author of more than 120 papers on peer reviewed international journals, 5 book chapters, 2 patents and about 200 publications on proceedings of international conferences. He iss the editor of 8 special issues of international journals on subjects related to polymer processing.
According to Scopus database, his current h-index is 30.
He is member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Applied Polymer Science and Journal of Polymer Engineering, and he is member of the Section Board for 'Polymer Processing and Performance' of Polymers.
In 2015, he was awarded of the Moran Lambla Award of the International Polymer Processing Society (PPS), for this society, he is International Representative for Italy. In 2016, with the project SMARTVASE, he was the winner of the NATIONAL AWARD FOR INNOVATION conferred by the President of the Italian Republic at the Quirinale Palace.

 

Prof. Dr. Byungohk Rhee

He earned a bachelor’s degree at the Mechanical Design department of Seoul National University, Korea, and a Ph.D. degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at Troy, NY, USA in the research of the powder injection molding technology. Before he moved to RPI, he worked for the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) as a researcher for 3 years. He worked for the Cornell Injection Molding Program (CIMP) of Cornell University at Ithaca, NY, USA as a post-doctoral researcher after he earned doctoral degree. He started his teaching career at Ajou University since 1993. He has been working in the field of the injection molding technology since he started his doctoral research. His major concerns are the monitoring and control technology for the injection molding process, the automated optimization of the injection mold, the process development of new materials and the rheological and thermal characterizations of plastics materials. In 2012, he organized the Center for Nao-Structured Polymer Processing Technology (CNSPPT) with researchers who are willing to devote to enhancing the technological level of the plastics processing industry in Korea. He has put efforts with his colleagues into engineering education, training and research in the field of the plastics processing technology, especially the injection molding technology.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Udo Wagenknecht

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Udo Wagenknecht is the head of the department for Materials Engineering at the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung in Dresden (IPF), Germany. Furthermore, he is honorary professor for Plastics Processing at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), Germany. His current research topics comprise functional multiphase polymer materials, mixing processes, reactive processing as well as structure development during processing. Prof. Wagenknecht extensively contributes to scientific knowledge distribution with around 160 publications in internationally recognized journals as well as in his various position within organizational committees for international congresses. Since 2003 he holds the co-chairmanship of the biannual congress TECHNOMER in Chemnitz, Germany, with regularly 450 participants. Furthermore, he held the chair of the congress EUROFILLERS (2011) in Dresden, Germany as well as of the European/Africa Conference of the Polymer Processing Society (2017) in Dresden as well. Prof. Wagenknecht is an accomplished referee for multiple scientific organizations, including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Research Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.