2024 Election for SPE Board of Directors

Candidates for Board of Directors

2024 Candidates for Board of Directors - Mubashir Qamar Ansari, Ph.D.

2024 Election for SPE Board of Directors

Mubashir Qamar Ansari, Ph.D.

SPE Director Nominee

Experience

Dow — 4 years 5 Months
3/2022-Present • Associate Research Scientist, Core R&D • Dow Inc.
9/2019-3/2022 • Senior Research Specialist, Core R&D • Dow Inc.
4/2019-8/2019 • Senior Engineer, Core R&D • Dow Inc.

Leading an injection molding capability, to innovate with various Dow businesses and groups, including Dow Plastics Additives, Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Dow Performance Silicones, Corporate R&D, and Ventures and Business Development.
Cultivated and leading project pipeline of around $3 million, since 2021, through business partnerships
Leading multigenerational planning and capital management for the injection molding platform.
Engaged with academia through invited seminars (4 invited lectures on sustainability and digitization topics, and one keynote talk), and campus recruitment activities.
Ideated and led projects to support new business developments by technical and marketing de-risking studies, that is leading to the formation of a new business platform.
Key areas of research: polymer blends, digitization of polymer processing workflows, additives (FR, nucleator, polymer processing aids, fillers), automotive composites (sustainable, GF-, CF-reinforced), TPO formulations, PCR formulation, impact modification, substances of concern replacement, high throughput research, data management, capability development.
Key application focus: Caps and closures, automotive (sustainable composites, electromagnetic interference shielding, PCR incorporation into TPO formulations, translucent TPO, FR improvement for EVs, impact modification of long and short chain Nylon, caps and closures, blown film for packaging.
Workflow integration leader, to enable digitization of polymer processing capabilities.
Bootcamp for new hires to align with the industry.
Speaker series for Asian Diversity Network for development of the Asian communities
Sustainability seminar series for Asian Development Network to increase awareness of sustainability among Asian communities.
Four patent applications, based on work at Dow.
Commercialization: EVERCAP™ HDPE DMDA-1241 (HDPE product enabling mono-material sustainable packaging), REVOLOOP™ DMDR-1210 (PCR containing HDPE formulation, nominated for R&D 100); REVOLOOP™ CE (Dow’s first blown film resin, containing PCR, Gold Award Winner in the category of Plastic Upcycling by Edison Awards), several PFAS free (APPEEL™ 35D220 and APPEEL™ 35D140) and PFAS-alternative containing polyethylene products.
External Award/Recognition: 2022 Rising Star by Plastics News
Member of the Ad-hoc Committee on future conferences of the Society of Rheology
Technical Program Chair of Advances in Materials @ CAMX 2023, Georgia, organized by SAMPE.
Session chair for “Applied Rheology and Rheology Methods” at 92^nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology, Bangor Maine.
Several guest lectures, seminars, and keynote talks giving in academia, mostly at Michigan State University.

6/2021-Present • Alumni Faculty • Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi

This alumni visiting professor position is to teach courses in my area of expertise.

6/2012-8/2014 • Process Engineer • BPCL, Mumbai Refinery (Fortune 500)

Supervised a Hydrogen Generation Unit (150 tons/day) and a Crude Distillation Unit (6 MMTPA).
Led a team comprising of Panel Men, Engineers, and Field Operators for the smooth operation of units.
Other responsibilities: Manpower management, updating P&ID’s and safety.
Successfully handled many emergency shutdowns and one 4-yearly planned shutdown to implement modifications, catalyst replacement and equipment maintenance such as furnace, reactors, exchangers.
Trainings: Steady state simulation (Pro-II), Experion Operations by Honeywell and OTS H₂ Simulator.
Proposed and implemented process improvement for boiler feed water reliability that avoided spurious plant trips. Awarded first prize among 6000 engineers.

5/2011-6/2011 • Summer Intern • Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Haldia India

Demonstrated advantages of implementing a heat exchanger arrangement for reducing furnace oil consumption for vacuum distillation unit

SPE Positions Held

Board member of the Society of Plastics Engineers Technical Interest Group on Thermoplastic Elastomers — 3/2022–Now
SPE ANTEC® 2024 Technical Program Chair of Elastomers
SPE ANTEC® 2023 Technical Program Chair of Elastomers
Moderator of Sustainability Session at SPE ANTEC® 2023
Journal Reviewer: Polymer Engineering & Science and Polymer Composites
Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers since 2018
Moderated Applied Rheology Session at ANTEC® 2021.

Education

8/2014-2/2019 • Ph.D. • Chemical Engineering • Virginia Tech

8/2014-9/2017 • M.Eng. • Chemical Engineering • Virginia Tech

7/2008-5/2012 • B.Tech. • Chemical Engineering • IIT-BHU

7/2022-8/2022 • Leading • Through Personal Excellence • Stanford Business School

8/2014–2/2019 • Ph.D. • Virginia Tech • Advisor: Donald G. Baird

Thesis: Generation of Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polymer (TLCP)-Thermoplastic Composite Filaments and Their Processing in Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF).

Generated nearly continuously reinforced composite filaments for 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing)
Used rheology to combine polymers with non-overlapping processing temperatures using co-extrusion.
Tensile strength and modulus of ABS-TLCP filaments were improved by 7 and 20 times, respectively.
Tensile strength and modulus of PPS-TLCP filaments were improved by 2 and 12 times, respectively.
Devised recycling schemes for in-situ composites for automotive and aerospace applications.
Exfoliated carbon nanotubes using a novel CO₂ method for blending with ABS for use in FFF.
Mentoring and project alignment of undergraduate and first year graduate students.
Project: Generated flame-retardant fibers for combat uniforms for the US Army (9/2017-3/2018)
ETERPRENEURSHIP: Formed and led team named “RheoPrinter” to compete at: Ideafest 2018, Danville VA; 2018 Virginia Tech Entrepreneur Challenge; NSF ICorps Virginia Tech Regional Program, Blacksburg; VTKW Global Entrepreneurship Challenge
Granted Patent (US 2021/0095115 A1, Pub. Date: 4/1/2021): Thermoplastic Composites for use in Fused Filament Fabrication, a 3-D Printing Process.
Leadership: Aspire award in Courageous Leadership Category by Virginia Tech
Global Ambassador, Cranwell International Center, Virginia Tech
Local organizing team member for 88^th Annual Meeting, Society of Rheology, Tampa
Student advisory board member at Smith Career center, Virginia Tech

View Curriculum Vitae

Summary

I am a very passionate plastics professional who has had numerous opportunities within Dow as well as externally to develop leadership skills that will be put to use in the role of the Board of Director. At Dow, under my leadership of the injection molding capability, the teams I have led have realized numerous successes. The projects that I continue to lead are complex in nature, by virtue of their importance (product development, IP capture, commercialization, etc.) and in many cases start with very limited or no knowledge. Through collaborations and the guidance of my mentors and leaders, many of those projects have been met with commercial successes. Working in very complex, cross-business, cross-geography teams, and many internal as well as external training, such as the “Leading through personal excellence” certification offered by Stanford Business School, have made me a versatile collaborator, and instilled in me strong stakeholder management and project management skills. I believe similar complexities and intricacies operate at SPE and my leadership experiences can be used at SPE.

Starting from graduate school, where I served as the Global Ambassador and Student Career Advisor, I enjoyed those roles that allowed me to serve the students and led to my being presented the Aspire Award in the Courageous Leadership category by Virginia Tech. I continue to serve the young professionals and students in academia as well as the industry today with several such opportunities that include the speaker of the careers in rheology session at the Society of Rheology, several guest lectures and graduate-level seminars given to the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science department of the Michigan State University, a keynote talk given to the students in India, my voluntary services as the alumni faculty of my undergraduate institution (IIT-BHU), and various opportunities at Dow, such as training bootcamps for the new professionals in the industry. I am interested in lending these experiences to the continued success of SPE.

After joining Dow, I had many external leadership opportunities at SPE (session chair, moderator, TPE TIG board member), SAMPE (session chair at CAMX 2023), and SOR (session chair, member of the future conferences committee). My services to the plastics industry were recognized by being selected a “Rising Star”, given by the “Plastics News” in 2022 which is awarded to 35 plastics professionals under 35 years of age who are already leaders in the field. Since grad school, I’ve attended several SPE conferences, including TPO, FOAMS, ACCE, Plastics in EV and Autonomous Vehicles, Int. Polyolefins Conference, and ANTEC. As much as I appreciate what SPE is doing by providing new opportunities to learn and share knowledge, I believe there exist opportunities for further improvement and modernization so that SPE is geared to serve young and old plastics professionals. Having a good understanding of the gaps in undergraduate and graduate education as well as the talent gaps in the industry, I will strive to address those gaps by creating opportunities at SPE, such as through training, webinars, new conference themes, and sessions, etc.

Through my role at Dow, I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of materials systems, including polymer blends, additives (nucleators, FR, process aids, brighteners, fillers), sustainability (PCRs, monomaterial packaging), automotive thermoplastics (TPO, translucent TPO, EMI shielding) and composites (sustainable, CF, GF), substances of concern replacement, foams, and have constantly pushed the boundaries in materials development. These materials systems and applications translate to different divisions and materials-based categorization at SPE. I am a strong advocate for the modernization and digitization of the polymer processing industry and have personally led digitization and adoption of data management efforts that pave the way for the adoption of AI and machine learning in various polymer processing workflows. These experiences provide me with the technical understanding needed in various SPE sub-divisions. I will advocate for filling in the knowledge gaps, by strongly advocating for placeholders for each of the materials system-based themes at various SPE conferences. I have a strong network of professionals, not only at Dow but also externally in the industry and academia. I strongly believe it is the people, their aspirations for the success of SPE, and their personal career growth goals, that bring them to SPE. If elected, I will work very hard to continue to make the Society successful and take the opportunity to give back to it through striving hard to provide more opportunities to young professionals.