Spontak honored by the Royal Society of Chemistry

Dr. Richard Spontak, Alumni Distinguished professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).

The FRSC consists of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Fellows and Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science. Past Fellows and Foreign Members have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein.

Before joining the NC State faculty in 1992, Spontak was a research scientist with Procter & Gamble. His research focuses on the design and development of novel soft materials involving polymer nanostructures, nanocomposites and networks, and he has pioneered the use of 3D transmission electron microtomography in soft material research. The RSC cited his work in energy-efficient electroactive and shape-memory materials, as well as designer nanolaminates, composed of self-assembling macromolecules. These materials respond to external stimuli and are of fundamental and commercial interest in a wide range of contemporary technologies where controllable shape or surface change is important.

Spontak has received several international awards for his research, including the 2012 Lars Onsager Professorship from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; the 2011 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Colwyn Medal; the 2008 American Chemical Society Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award; the 2007 German Society for Electron Microscopy Ernst Ruska Prize; and the 2006 American Chemical Society Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science & Engineering.

At NC State, he has been recognized with the 2012 Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, the 2005 Alumni Outstanding Research Award, and the 2008 Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching. A Humboldt research fellow and Fulbright senior specialist, he received his PhD in 1988 from the University of California at Berkeley and his BS in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1983. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in England and the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway.