Celanese Corporation was a great place to work in the 1980’s, and my desire to stay with the company, but not work on the gulf coast sent me to Charlotte NC, where I had to learn the ins and outs of polyesters.  This proved to be both enjoyable and relatively straight forward, and allowed me to contribute to the firm’s PBT then PET product lines.  An assignment to organize the university-based research serving the Fibers and Films Division of what then had become Hoechst-Celanese Corporation put me on campus, and ultimately allowed me to make the jump to academia after 20 years, not typically an easy transition.  The accidental rediscovery of clay aerogels, working with the University of Southern Mississippi provided me with both polyester and aerogel ideas to challenge Case Western Reserve University students; the surprising flammability properties of some of the aerogels, and a chance friendship in Barcelona Spain, propelled us into materials flammability; significant contributions towards low-toxicity flame retardants for commodity plastics resulted from the work of our creative students.  Towards the end of decade two of our academic work, an old friend polyester that had been my focus twenty-plus years ago came back to our research program, at the request of industry, providing symmetry to an enjoyable career spanning nearly 40 years.<br/>

From polyester to aerogels, flammability and back

255th National Meeting (2018)

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