Appendix B
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Joseph G. Wirth, chair, was senior vice president and chief technical officer, Raychem Corporation (retired), and, prior to that, vice president, Plastics Technology Division, General Electric. While at General Electric, Dr. Wirth’s research interests were engineering plastics and silicones. He is the inventor of polyetherimides, a heat and fire-resistant plastic used in aircraft and automobiles. As manager of worldwide technology operations, corporate manufacturing, and new business development for Raychem, he was responsible for commercializing new materials.
Corby G. Anderson is director of the Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing, Montana Technology Institute of the University of Montana. He has more than 20 years of experience in metallurgical engineering, including the mining industry, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and mineral processing. Mr. Anderson is director of the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI) and a trustee of the Northwest Mining Association.
Orville Hunter, Jr., is retired vice president of technology at A.P. Green Industries, where he was responsible for refractories research and development, quality management, raw materials, environmental compliance, new product installation methods, applications engineering, and manufacturing process improvements.
Sylvia M. Johnson is chief, Thermal Protection Systems Branch, NASA Ames Research Center. Previously, she was director of chemical and ceramic product development at SRI International. She has extensive research expertise in the properties and processing of ceramics and ceramic composites. Her research has focused on the synthesis of oxide and nonoxide ceramic powders; the processing, characterization, and evaluation of structural ceramics, especially silicon nitride; and methods of joining ceramics.
Harry A. Lipsitt is professor emeritus in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Wright State University. He spent 30 years at the Air Force Wright Laboratory working on the development and optimization of metallic and intermetallic materials for use in high-temperature applications. His earlier research included fracture toughness in ceramics; deformation mechanisms in two-phase alloys; and deformation mechanisms in ordered intermetallics.
Nicholas Montanarelli was deputy director, Office of Technology Applications, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). His expertise is in materials technology transfer, as well as in evaluating the commercialization potential of technologies. Prior to BMDO, Mr. Montanarelli held a number of key technology-transfer positions in the federal government, including program director for East-West Trade in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, special assistant in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at The White House, and program manager at the National Science Foundation.
Anatoly Nemzer, manager of materials engineering at FMC Corporation, has expertise in materials needs and applications for the chemical process industry. He has been involved in process development chemistry and corrosion engineering in the chemical processing industry for more than 20 years. He has also been active in the development and evaluation of high-temperature, corrosion-resistant materials, including nickel aluminide, for application in chemical processing equipment.
Harold W. Paxton (NAE), the U.S. Steel Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Science at Carnegie-Mellon University, has expertise in the properties and performance of metals as they are influenced by processing and steel industry applications. He is past chair of the General Research Committee of the American Iron and Steel Institute and was president of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers.
Peter H. Pfromm is associate professor of chemical engineering at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology. Dr. Pfromm’s industrial experience includes several years with Membrane Technology and Research, Inc., a company that specializes in membrane separations, and Pharmetrix, Inc., a company that develops controlled-release devices for drugs. His areas of expertise include polymer science, gaseous membrane separations, electrochemical separations, specialty separations, closed-cycle manufacturing, and paper recycling.
Frederic J-Y Quan is manager of Technology Acquisition at Corning, Inc., where he is responsible for the company’s research contract business for a broad range of glass technologies and sponsors. Previous to this, he was in the Telecommunications Products Division, where he started the specialty fiber business for Corning. He also
worked in the Electronics Products Division, where he supported Corning’s resistor and capacitor business.
Michael P. Thomas, director of technology and business development with Alcan Aluminum Corporation, has expertise in metallurgy and materials processing, with 15 years of industrial experience in new product research and development (R&D), R&D management, corporate strategy, and business management. His expertise is in the commercialization of separation technologies used in aluminum recycling and materials needs and applications to the aluminum industry.
Sheldon M. Wiederhorn (NAE) is special assistant to the director of the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His expertise is in the properties and processing of ceramics and ceramic composites. He has been cited for his work in the development and application of test methods and the basic understanding of the mechanical properties of ceramics.