In early January, SPE announced the 2023 recipients of its Fellow of Society Award. The Fellow of the Society program was established in 1984 and 359 SPE members have been awarded with the Fellow title since its inception.
The Fellow of Society program honors SPE members for their outstanding contributions in the field of plastics engineering, science/technology, or in the management of such activities. Candidates must be sponsored by an SPE Section, Technical Division or Special Interest Group and elected by the Fellows Election Committee based on their professional record as well as written sponsorships from at least two SPE members.
2023 Fellow of Society Recipients
The following two plastics professionals received SPE’s Fellow of Society Award for 2023:
Dr. Vivek Rohatgi, Pipe Resin & Applications Technical Service Manager, Chevron Phillips Chemical
Nominated by the SPE Oklahoma Section
Vivek Rohatgi is the Pipe Resin & Applications Technical Service Manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical. He has a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University. He has 24 years of industry experience in polymer processing, applications development and commercialization. He is active in several industry organizations including the American Gas Association (AGA), ASTM Committee on Piping Materials, Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI) and Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). He currently has 17 US patents, 23 Journal & Conference Papers and 3 Book Chapters. He is a big Buckeyes football fan!
Dr. Uday K. Vaidya, Chief Technology Officer, IACMI-The Composites Institute
Nominated by the SPE Composites Division
Dr. Uday Vaidya is the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (UT-ORNL) Governor's Chair in Advanced Composites Manufacturing. Vaidya serves as the Chief Technology Officer for IACMI-The Composites Institute. Vaidya has over three decades of experience in engineered plastics and composites. Vaidya serves as the Editor in Chief for Elsevier’s Composites Part B : Engineering journal. Vaidya is the author of two books- 'Composites for Automotive, Mass Transit and Truck' and ‘Advanced Composites – Innovation and Experiential Learning. Vaidya serves as the Education Chair for SPE Composites Division and has advanced student’s engagement in SPE since 2004.
About the SPE Fellow of Society Award
Substantial contributions include being an inventor, proprietor, creator or developer of a new concept or a driving force in reducing such to practice, or a recognized leader of such an effort with responsibilities that go beyond the administrative, such that the accomplishment could not have been made without that individual’s dedicated leadership.
Fellow status in SPE is a technical honor and becoming a Fellow requires:
- Technical accomplishments. Accomplishments that moved the industry in a technology segment.
- To support the technology accomplishments and their value five examples of technological achievements that show clear ‘step’ changes or ‘quantum leaps’ in the plastics industry
- Documentations on publications and any patents. Prove support of technology change(s).
- Patents are useful to support application because they do demonstrate uniqueness and may indicate technology that moves the industry. Management of groups that provide technology step changes.
For candidates to be elected as a Fellow, are sponsored, in writing, by the Board of Directors of at least one Section or Division, or by a committee of the Society organized for this purpose; shall have credentials certified by and application approved by the Credentials Committee; and shall have been a SPE member in good standing for six years. Also, a process champion will be appointed to ensure all the documentation that is required is a part of the application. The division involved will also provide a critique. The level of Fellow of the Society shall at no time exceed 5% of the voting members in good standing in the Society.
More information about SPE’s Fellow of Society awards can be found at www.4spe.org/Awards.