Grad Student Wins Poster Competition

Nuthathai Warasitthinon, center, with, from left, Prof. Joey Mead, Dr. Ming Wei, Daniel Murphy, Guthrie Gordon, Mayur Khumbani, John Shearer, Arun Kumar and Mikael Wagner. Not shown in the photo are Prof. Carol Barry and Lois Heath.

Nuthathai Warasitthinon, a plastics engineering graduate student, took the top honors in the grad student poster competition held during the American Chemical Society’s Rubber Division Meeting in Pittsburgh in October.

Warasitthinon was one of seven students that Profs. Carol Barry and Joey Mead of the Plastics Engineering Department took, along with two postdoctoral researchers, to the division’s 100th anniversary celebration.

“The meeting brought together both industry and academia to showcase the latest advances in research and equipment,” says Mead.

Warasitthinon’s winning poster, “Nanocomposites of NBR with Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes,” was co-authored with Jijun Huang, Carol Barry, Lacramioara Schulte auf’m Erley, Andrew Hope, David Norton and Joey Mead. Warasitthinon received a $1,000 check for her prize.

A total of five papers and two posters were presented by the UMass Lowell contingent at the meeting. The papers and their authors were:

• “The Effect of Mixed Filler Sizes on the Fiber Diameter of Electrospun Butyl Rubber Formulations” by Daniel Murphy, Walter Zukas, Carol Barry and Joey Mead
• “Halogen-Free Flame Retardants for Wire and Cable Applications” by Ming Wei, Daniel Murphy, Carol Barry and Joey Mead
• “Injection Molding of Microfeatures Using Thermoplastic Elastomers” by Sunghwan Yoon, Joey Mead and Carol Barry
• “The Effect of MWCNTs on Cure Characteristics and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of  Styrene-Butadiene Rubber Compounds” by  Mikael Wagner, Andrew Hope, Lacramioara Schulte auf’m Erley, Carol Barry and Joey Mead
• "The Effect of Ultrafine Ground Tire Rubber Concentration on the Rheology, Dynamic Mechanical and Physical Properties of Injection Molded Elastomers” by Arun Kumar, Daniel Murphy, Carol Barry and Joey Mead.

In addition to Warasitthinon’s poster, the other poster presented (for the undergraduate level) was “The Physical Property Effects of Compatibilizers in Ultrafine Ground Scrap Tire Rubber Blended with Thermoplastic Olefins” by Guthrie Gordon, Daniel Murphy, Mikael Wagner, Erik Dunkerly, Carol Barry and Joey Mead.

 - Edwin L. Aguirre

Warasitthinon proudly holds her $1,000 check.