Jeff Kolstad joins Avantium as Chief Scientist to accelerate bioplastics development

Avantium announced that Dr. Jeffrey J. Kolstad has joined Avantium as Chief Scientist. Jeff Kolstad will strengthen Avantium’s team in developing a next generation of bioplastics on the basis of its YXY technology.

Previously Chief Scientist at NatureWorks (formerly Cargill-Dow) he was one of the founding team members for developing and commercializing PLA (polylactic-acid), a biobased polymer. The team developed the process and polymer technology, moving it from laboratory scale, to pilot plant, into a fully commercial 140,000 MT/yr manufacturing facility in Blair, Nebraska, USA. Jeff was also responsible for managing the intellectual property portfolio and IP strategy of NatureWorks. Prior to NatureWorks, Jeff worked in the Corporate Research centers at Cargill,Inc. and Amoco Oil Company. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Princeton University. 

Avantium is developing its YXY technology for the cost effective production of Furanics building blocks. The company is building a pilot plant to demonstrate its YXY technology and to produce larger volumes of YXY building blocks for application development of new, green plastics, chemicals and materials. Earlier this year, Avantium announced that is actively developing PEF, a 100% renewable and 100% recyclable polyester as alternative to petroleum based PET. Avantium has also partnered with Solvay for the development of green polyamides for engineering plastics and with Teijin Aramid for the development of green high-performance fibers.

 

Former Royal Society of Chemistry Chief Executive Dr Richard Pike dies

 Dr Richard Pike has died at the age of 61.  Dr Pike stood down as the RSC’s chief executive in February this year after five successful years at the helm of the learned society. Under his leadership, membership reached a record high of more than 47,500. Among other notable achievements, 10 new journal titles were launched and the number of chemical sciences articles published since Dr Pike joined in 2006 trebled.

He also steered the RSC into international waters, with several new offices opening in China, India and the United States. A fluent Japanese speaker, having spent five years in Japan while working as an executive for BP, Richard also oversaw plans for the opening of the RSC’s Tokyo office, which took place in July.

Born on 2 April, 1950, Dr Pike attended Gosport County Grammar School (later to become the comprehensive Bay House School) before studying at Downing College, Cambridge, where he gained a 1st Class BA in engineering in 1971. He gained a PhD in 1977, also from Cambridge, and his research work investigated experimental and theoretical aspects of vapour bubble dynamics in boiling liquids, focusing on the thermal and fluid characteristics of water and organic liquids in various gravitational fields, including Earth and zero gravity.

He was sponsored by BP as an undergraduate and went about studying Japanese during his time at college. This led to a 25-year career in British Petroleum (BP), where he held a number of technical and commercial positions in the UK and abroad. While working in Tokyo as General Manager, Chemicals, BP Far East, he was also appointed President, BP Chemicals, Japan and Director, Samsung-BP Chemicals, South Korea.

Upon returning to the UK, Dr Pike became Director General of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers – a position he held for five years. He moved on to become senior associate at Gaffney, Cline & Associates, advising on corporate strategy within the oil and gas industry.

In February 2006 he was appointed as the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry and said he looked forward to “ensuring that the RSC maintains and develops its role in championing the vital role that the chemical sciences and those who practise them play in the future prosperity and well-being of the population, economy and environment”.

It was a position he relished as Dr Pike quickly became the UK’s leading advocate of the chemical sciences through a sustained media campaign, allowing the RSC, combined with its parliamentary activities, to become a significant voice in science and education, acknowledged for its robust defence and worldwide promotion of the chemical sciences.

One of his best known initiatives was the ‘Five-Decade Challenge’, an exam for the brightest 16-year-old chemistry students taking in exam questions from the 1960s through to the 2000s. The results showed the pupils performed significantly worse on the older papers’ questions – Dr Pike said this demonstrated a lack of problem-solving ability, a problem stemming not from pupils or teachers but a flawed national science curriculum too focused on ‘hoop-jumping’.

He appeared on news channels and radio stations throughout last summer using his experience as a chemical engineer and former BP executive to explain to the nation the developments concerning the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. But raising standards in education was the one theme Dr Pike returned to throughout his time at the RSC, never missing an opportunity to question whether exam boards challenged British pupils enough while simultaneously highlighting the important role chemical scientists played in the health and well-being of the nation.

In the year Dr Pike stood down as chief executive, a record number of students began studying chemistry at UK universities.

Tecan appoints Martin Brusdeilins as Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Group Management Board

The Board of Directors of the Tecan Group has appointed Dr. Martin Brusdeilins as Chief Scientific Officer and a Member of the Group Management Board. He will head the new Science & Technology organizational unit at Group level and take up his role at Tecan on September 1, 2011.

Dr. Martin Brusdeilins has extensive experience in a variety of management positions in the diagnostic and life science industry. He worked at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc., an enterprise of the Johnson & Johnson Company in Rochester, New York, USA, from 2003 until the end of May 2011, latterly as Vice President Product Development. In this role and in his previous role as Vice President Research & Development, which he performed for over six years, he was responsible for global product development of all diagnostic instruments and reagents as well as the life cycle management of these products. From 1985 to 2003, Martin Brusdeilins held various management and professional positions at Roche Diagnostics in Europe and the USA, where he was responsible for the entire product development of near patient diagnostic tests and test instruments, including in his role as Vice President Research & Development Near Patient Testing. From 1998 to 2001, as Vice President and General Manager, he was responsible for production, research & development, marketing and quality assurance, and clinical studies in a business unit of Roche Diagnostics in the USA.

Martin Brusdeilins studied biochemistry at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and earned a doctorate in this subject at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany. He is 59 years old and a German citizen.

The Science & Technology organizational unit was created as part of the new Group organization that became effective in 2011, with the aim of implementing Tecan's growth strategy even more effectively. The new structure aims to drive forward the development of integrated workflow solutions, to better leverage synergies in the development of technology, and to further accelerate the pace of innovation. Science & Technology bundles resources for the development of enabling technologies, for licensing, and for scouting of technologies. It is also responsible for evaluating the content of the technologies in M&A projects and for developing partnerships with industry and academic research. The organizational unit incorporates the Innovation & Incubation group, which will continue in its role.