David Bigio has been engaged in the field of polymer processing for over 15 years. He received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1986. Since joining the faculty of the University of Maryland at College Park, he has established the Polymer Processing Laboratory, which is engaged in research dedicated to the quantification of mixing as a basis for extruder performance evaluation. The concept has been applied to various polymer processes like reactive extrusion, devolatilization, and blend compatibilization for both individual companies and the Polymer Mixing Program — an Industrial Partnership. He currently is PI for two NSF Goali programs — one focused on establishing a novel controls approach to extrusion processes and one involved with a novel design for the next generation of injection molding machine.

Dr. Bigio has been involved with curricula development for the past ten years. He has spearheaded the redesign of a number of core engineering courses, including the Engineering Project, Fluid Dynamics and capstone Engineering Design courses. He was a CTE-Lilly Teaching Fellow for 1996-1997. He received the Kent Poole Senior Faculty Teaching Award for 2002-2003. Finally, he is a leader in BESTEAMS – a program to create a team training program over the undergraduate program. Modules are being created in personal, interpersonal and project management areas that can be delivered as part of the course. This program recently received funding from NSF-CCLI-EMD – to create the 4-year curriculum and educational materials. Finally, Dr. Bigio is a certified Black Belt in Six Sigma and has advised over 30 projects for various companies.