McGee Lecture Series
The Henry A. McGee Lectures in Chemical and Life Science Engineering honor the founding dean of VCU’s College of Engineering, Henry A. McGee, who is also a distinguished Emeritus professor in the Chemical and Life Science Engineering department. The lecture series is made possible by the Betty Rose and Henry McGee Endowment for Chemical Engineering. Learn more about Dr. Henry McGee.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Time: 4–5 p.m.
Location: Engineering Research Building, Room 1313
Lecture title
Uncommon Observations with Common Polymers: Implications and Applications
Bio
Gary Wnek is the Joseph F. Toot, Jr., Professor of Engineering and Professor and Chair of the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He was previously a faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and the Department of Chemistry at RPI were he also served as Department Chair, and was the Founding Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests include processing of polymer multi-layer and polymer fiber/matrix composites, deformation processing, flammability mitigation of common polymers, and synthetic macromolecular constructs that mimic physiological functions. He has authored or co-authored over 215 publications and holds 38 US patents. He received the 2007 John W. Hyatt Award (benefit to society) from the Society of Plastics Engineers for his work on polymer nano- and microfibers for regenerative medicine and related biomedical applications, and was recently elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Gary earned his Ph.D. In Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Abstract
The field of polymeric materials recently celebrated its centenary anniversary, and yet there is much to learn and do with many simple and well-studied polymers. In two of the cases presented, the deliberate avoidance of additives or chemical crosslinking is attractive from a sustainability perspective. In a third case, a simple, super-absorbent polymer is studied as a mimic of key aspects of living systems, specifically motion and excitability. Three polymers of choice to illustrate these cases are poly(p-phenylene sulfide) or PPS, butyl rubber, and lightly-crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) in its ionized (primarily sodium salt) form. Toward that end, three vignettes will be presented and discussed: (1) the use of solid-state deformation processing, and specifically cold-rolling which is common in the ductile metals industry, to enhance mechanical properties of semi-crystalline polymers such as PPS without the addition of fillers or toughening agents; (2) unusual but predictable tension-and-release properties of simple bilayers of a thermoplastic elastomer and butyl rubber which necessarily have different viscoelastic responses, along with very recent work with tri-layers and applications related to the dissipation of impact energy; and (3) poly(acrylic acid)-based gels that, in polyanionic form, are of interest as models of cellular cytoskeleton and the ectoplasm of nerve, and which can exhibit electrical potentials similar in sign and magnitude to living cells.
Past Speakers
- 2024 – LaShanda Korley, Ph.D.
- 2023 – Carol K. Hall, Ph.D.
- 2022 – Piero Baglioni, Ph.D.
- 2021 – Dong-Pyo Kim, Ph.D.
- 2020 – Monty Alger, Ph.D.
- 2019 – Klavs Jensen, Ph.D.
- 2018 – Babatunde Ogunnaike, Ph.D.
- 2017 – Robert Prud'homme, Ph.D.
- 2016 – Gregory Stephanopoulos, Ph.D.
- 2015 – Vicki L. Colvin, Ph.D.
- 2014 – Benny D. Freeman, Ph.D.
- 2013 – Mark E. Davis, Ph.D.
- 2012 – Jay Keasling, Ph.D.
- 2011 – Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D.
- 2010 – Charles Liotta, Ph.D.