A More Sustainable Future via Polymer Circularity
Dr. Katherine Beers
Manager of the Circular Economy Program and the Leader of the Polymers and Complex Fluids Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
In a Circular Economy, atoms and molecules are kept inside the economy where they continue to produce value, and they are kept out of unwanted places like our environment. At a high level, this concept applied to polymers and plastics should reduce the flow of material into the environment, while improving efficiency and reducing demand for natural resources, but the reality is much more complex. When considering the full supply chain, from design and manufacture, to use and retrieval, the system is full of challenges and potential for leakage.
The only way to ensure progress is to design changes to the system with these fundamental goals in mind, and to build the measurement and data frameworks that can support difficult decision-making and confidence in the results. The talk will present some NIST activities in fundamental materials design and measurement relevant to this larger need, including polyolefin molecular design for improved recovery, and models and processes to improve compatibilization of polymer blends relevant to mechanical recycling.
About the Speaker
Dr. Kathryn Beers is the Manager of the Circular Economy Program and the Leader of the Polymers and Complex Fluids Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. Dr. Beers received an MS in Polymer Science and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University, and began working at NIST as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research interests include microreactors and microfluidics, advances in polymer synthesis and reaction monitoring, macromolecular separations, integrated and high throughput measurements of polymeric materials, degradable and renewable polymeric materials, and sustainable materials. Dr. Beers was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal and in 2005, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2007, and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.
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