JSW America’s Paul Martin and Dow’s Pavan Valavala Named to SPE Executive Board

SPE President Jason Lyons appointed Paul Martin, Vice President, JSW America, as VP at Large and Pavan Valavala, Sr. R&D Leader for the Materials Engineering Center in the Engineering and Process Sciences Organization, Dow, Inc., was approved by the Executive Board to assume position of SPE’s VP Professional Development. Each of these positions started on July 1 and will run for one year.

The VP at Large position was appointed by Lyons as President-Elect – with the consent of the SPE Executive Board – prior to beginning his term as President. The person filling this position may be reappointed multiple times and is subject to service limits. The VP Professional Development position is required to complete the term left vacant by Bruce Mulholland as he assumes the role of SPE’s President-Elect.

ABOUT PAUL MARTIN

Martin is currently on the SPE Extrusion Division Board and is very active within the plastics community. Martin has volunteered his time with SPE in several roles:

• 2020-21 Chairman of SPE Extrusion Division
• 2019 TPC Chair for ANTEC
• Currently serving on the Scholarship Committee for the Extrusion Division

Martin has spent most of his career around rotating equipment, solving process issues with state-of-the-art equipment that employ cutting-edge applications. Over the past 20+ years, Martin has experience with market leading extrusion equipment companies like Coperion (Werner & Pfliederer), JSW, Berstorff/Krauss Maffei & LIST USA.  This experience has given Martin the polymer “know-how” from reactors to pelletizers, and everything else in between.
Martin’s roles and involvement at his current and previous companies have been in Executive Management focusing on sales and marketing. His current and past successes have led to many new process applications and sales within the rotating extrusion equipment industry.

Martin enjoys giving back to the Society that has given him so much and he misses the face-to-face networking and meetings that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Martin enjoys sports of all kinds, including running, jogging, golfing, boating, jet skiing, and almost any outdoor activity.

ABOUT PAVAN VALAVALA

Pavan Valavala is the Sr. R&D Leader for the Materials Engineering Center (MEC) in the Engineering and Process Sciences (E&PS) organization within Corporate R&D at Dow Inc.  In this role, Valavala works closely with R&D and manufacturing organizations to drive value through innovation and lead the development and growth of the MEC team. 

Prior to his current role, Valavala was a research scientist in the Plastics Characterization R&D group where he has applied his materials science expertise across the physical testing, rheology and thermal technologies within characterization, with a focus on the development of application relevant tests to accelerate product development efforts. He was also involved in digitization efforts where he led certain aspects of knowledge management for plastics R&D while supporting activities related to lab informatics and test scheduling. 

In addition, Valavala has been active in inclusion and diversity (I&D) efforts where he was part of the diversity sub-team in Plastics R&D that is responsible for promoting equitable practices and consistent processes to drive employee engagement and promote workplace fairness.

Outside Dow, Valavala is an active participant in SPE, where he is the treasurer for the Engineering Properties and Structure Division and the technical program chair for ANTEC 2021 for the Product Design and Development Division.

Valavala received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2008.  He also holds M.Sc. degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech and Ohio University, respectively. Prior to joining Dow, Valavala held positions as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University.  He joined Dow in Midland in 2011 to become a member of the Corporate R&D team. He is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt Project Leader and a TRIZ associate. Valavala was also awarded 2016 Young Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) South Texas Section.

More information about SPE and its Executive Board can be found here.