Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering
The Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering recognizes the cooperative research between industrial and academic or industrial and national laboratory scientists
2026 Award Winner
Joseph Thrasher1, Chadron Friesen2, and Jon Howell3
1. Clemson University, 2. Trinity Western University, 3. E.I. DuPont du Nemours and Co. Inc. and Chemours Inc., Retired
The Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering recognizes the cooperative research among industrial, academic, and national laboratory scientists. The research team of Dr. Joseph Thrasher (Clemson University), Dr. Chadron Friesen (Trinity Western University), and Dr. Jon Howell (E.I. DuPont du Nemours and Co. Inc. and Chemours Inc., Retired) is the winner of the 2026 Cooperative Research Award.
For more than two decades, focused, collaborative research efforts from this team has contributed significantly to the fundamental understanding, practical synthesis, and translation to commercial products of perfluoropolyalkylethers (PFPAEs) or perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) as advanced fluoropolymer lubricant technology for high-temperature use. The team has collectively been granted multiple patents (11 issued patents and 6 pending patents) in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea as well as documented their work in numerous high-impact publications, including seminal papers in prestigious journals such as Macromolecules, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and the Journal of Fluorine Chemistry. Their innovative approach has been commercialized with the Krytox™ brand of high temperature oils, greases, and lubricants from DuPont and then Chemours; the aerospace and electronics industries have been impacted by the development of these fluoropolymers with their adoption for applications in high-stress, high-temperature environments. The sustained research program has provided a collaborative and innovative framework for the career growth of numerous students, interns, and postdocs, and their continued research promises to yield even more groundbreaking results in the future.
CHADRON FRIESEN, Trinity Western University
JON HOWELL, E. I. DuPont du Nemours and Co. Inc. and Chemours Inc., Retired
JOSEPH THRASHER, Clemson University
The PMSE Division extends its congratulations to the award winners and thanks all nominators for their submissions. Nominations for the 2027 Cooperative Research Award are accepted any time prior to the deadline of August 1, 2026. Please forward nominations to the Chair of the PMSE Cooperative Research Award Committee, Dr. Howard Creel, 3M. hscreel@mmm.com.
Award Details
This award can be an individual award or can be shared by a team comprised of an academic and an industrial scientist or a scientist from national laboratory and an industrial scientist. The award is composed of a $5000 prize and $3000 travel allowance shared between the team to present at the Spring ACS national conference.
History
The award was originally established in the fall of 1992 and is supported by a generous gift from the Eastman Kodak Company.
Nominations
Nominations are to be submitted by August 1 of each year to the Chair of the PMSE Cooperative Research Award Committee. Nominations will be reviewed by the PMSE Cooperative Research Award Committee.
Please forward applications to Dr. Howard Creel, 3M [Email]
Award Selection
The nominee(s) for this award must have a documented record (patents, publications, etc.) of sustained, intensive cooperative and collaborative research across the university/industry or national laboratory/industry interface.
Past Recipients
Award and Nomination Summary
Purpose
PMSE encourages the development of collaborations across various disciplines and companies. The Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering is given to recognize the cooperative research between industrial and academic or industrial and national laboratory scientists. The cooperative research must be of importance to polymer science and technology.
Rules of Eligibility
The award is granted to emerging or established researchers, and nominations are welcome from all sectors of industry, government, and academia. This award can be an individual award or can be shared by a team comprised of an academic and an industrial scientist or a scientist from national laboratory and an industrial scientist. (Teams of more than two people may be considered.)
Award nominations include members of the PMSE Division.
Nominations Process
Nominations are to be submitted by August 1 for consideration for the award selection process awarding the next calendar year. Submissions should be sent to the Chair of the Committee.
The nomination should include a brief curriculum vitae of the candidate(s) and documentation or evidence of the collaborative research including supporting letter(s) explaining the significance of the research. If the research is carried out by a group of scientists from academia, national laboratory, or industry, the nomination should also highlight the contributions made by each researcher in the group. The 2025 Cooperative Research Award deadline will be on August 1, 2024. Please forward applications or questions on nomination submissions to Dr. Howard Creel, 3M [Email]
Award Selection
Nominations will be reviewed by the PMSE Cooperative Research Award Committee. A award selection will be made based on the review by the award committee.
Award Announcement and Nature
The Cooperative Research Award is announced in December for the next calendar year. The awardee(s) is(are) expected to give a lecture with an associated symposium at the Spring ACS National Meeting. The award is composed of a $5000 prize, which will be split equally if there are two (or more) awardees. There will also be a plaque, and up to a total of $3000 travel allowance (not to exceed $1500 per person), which can be split equally if there are two (or more) awardees, to attend the meeting, give the lecture, and to be presented with the award.
Past Award Winners
1994
Jean M. J. Fréchet, Cornell University
Hiroshi Ito, IBM
C. Grant Willson, University of Texas at Austin, previously IBM
1995
Leo Mandelkern, Florida State University
C. Stanley Speed and Ferdinand C. Stehling, Exxon Corp.
1996
Ray H. Baughman, Allied-Signal
1997
Henry K. Hall, Jr., University of Arizona
1998
Lynda K. Johnson, DuPont
Maurice Brookhart, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1999
Jose E. Valentini, Sterling Diagnostic Imaging
Yee C. Chiew, Leslie J. Fina, John Q. Jiang, Rutgers University
2000
James A. Schwindeman, FMC Corporation
Roderic P. Quirk, University of Akron
P.S. Chum, Dow Chemical Company
Anne Hiltner, Case Western Reserve University
Benny Freeman, University of Texas at Austin
Ingo Pinnau, Membrane Technology and Research
Craig Hawker, IBM Almaden Research Center
Thomas Russell, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Carnegie Mellon University
Frank W. Harris, University of Akron
Bruce K. Winker, Rockwell International
Stephen Z. D. Cheng, University of Akron
Steven D. Smith, Proctor and Gamble
Richard J. Spontak, North Carolina State University
Alec Scranton, University of Iowa
Christopher Bowman, University of Colorado at Boulder
Joe Oxman, 3M Corporation
Michael Idacavage, Cytec Industries
John Woods, Henkel Corporation
Donald Herr, National Starch and Chemical
Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota
Glenn H. Fredrickson, University of California, Santa Barbara
Edward J. Kramer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dennis A. Hucul, Dow Chemical Company
Stephen F. Hahn, Dow Chemical Company
2009
Robert M. Waymouth, Stanford University
James Hedrick, IBM Almaden Research Center
Nikos Hadjichristidis, University of Athens
David J. Lohse, ExxonMobil Co.
Timothy E. Long, Virginia Tech
Carl L. Willis, Kraton Polymers, LLC
Timothy Bunning, Air Force Research Laboratory
Timothy White, Air Force Research Laboratory
Nelson Tabiryan, BEAM Engineering
Emanuel Gianneliskern, Cornell University
Clois Powell, Texas State University
Gary Beal, Texas State University
Benjamin S. Hsiao, Stony Brook University
Andy H. Tsou, ExxonMobil Chemical Company
Brian Benicewicz, University of South Carolina
Gordon Calundann, Celanese Corporation
Edmund Elce, Promerus LLC/Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd.
Paul A. Kohl, Georgia Institute of Technology
2018
Dr. John Rabolt, University of Delaware, Formerly IBM Almaden Research Center
Dr. D. Bruce Chase, DuPont
Dr. Christopher Stafford, NIST
Dr. Edwin Chan, NIST
Professor Michael Hickner, Penn State
Professor Coray Colina, University of Florida
Dr. James Sturnfield, Dow Chemical
Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Dow Chemical
Dr. Abhishek Roy, Dow Chemical
Professor Christopher Bowman, University of Colorado
Professor Timothy Scott, University of Michigan
Dr. Ahmed Abuelyaman, 3M
Dr. Peter Bissinger, 3M
Dr. Bradley Craig, 3M
Karsten Dede, 3M
Dr. Timothy Dunbar, 3M
Dr. Adrian Eckert, 3M
Dr. Babu Gaddam, 3M retiree
Dr. Guy Joly, 3M
Dr. Larry Krepski, 3M retiree
Dr. Joe Oxman, 3M
Eric W. Cochran, Iowa State University
Donald Sjogren, Seneca Petroleum
R. Christopher Williams, Iowa State University
Charles L.Liotta, Georgia Institute of Technology
Bharat I. Chaudhary, Dow Chemical Company
Jeffrey M. Cogen, Dow Chemical Company
Tyler Culp, Penn State University
Enrique Gomez, Penn State University
Manish Kumar, University of Texas at Austin
Mou Paul, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Abhishek Roy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Jeffrey Wilbur, DuPont
Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota
Hung-Jue Sue, Texas A&M University
Nikhil Verghese, Dow Chemical Company (Currently SABIC)
Ha Pham, Dow Chemical Company (retired)
James Hendrick, IBM Almaden Research Center
Yi Yan Yang, Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) of A*STAR, Singapore