biography

Dr. Richard J. Spontak received the B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors/high distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983 and was later awarded the Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering (under the supervision of M.C. Williams) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research with A.H. Windle in Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (UK) and T. Riste in Condensed Matter Physics at the Institutt for Energiteknikk (Norway) before joining the Corporate Research Division of the Procter & Gamble Company in 1990. In 1992, he accepted a faculty position at North Carolina State University, where he supervises the Polymer Morphology Group. Since that time, Spontak has published over 275 research papers, and his work has been featured on the cover of 19 journals and 1 book. An elected fellow of the American Physical Society and IOM3, he is or has been on the editorial advisory board of 17 international journals and is editor-in-chief of 3 of them. He has been recognized as a 2007 Outstanding Scholar Alumnus and a 2012 Alumni Fellow by the Pennsylvania State University.