The International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP) will honor two of its outstanding leaders, James L. McGraw (left), IISRP, and Dr. Guy Wouters (right), retired from ExxonMobil. (Source: IISRP)
Both awards will be formally presented during IISRP’s 57th AGM in New Orleans, Louisiana, in April 2016. James L. McGraw will be the recipient of the prestigious General Award and Dr. Guy Wouters will receive the coveted Technical Award. “It will be a great honor for me to present these awards to two outstanding contributors to the synthetic rubber industry and valuable supporters of the IISRP,” said Juan Ramon Salinas, Managing Director and CEO of the IISRP.
Jim McGraw has served the IISRP and the synthetic rubber industry for 40 years, both as an IISRP chair and active committee member while employed by American Synthetic Rubber Corporation (ASRC) and subsequently as both IISRP Deputy and Managing Director and CEO for over 17 years. He provided high energy and effective leadership in protecting the worldwide synthetic rubber industry from regulatory assaults as well as providing leadership in many scientific studies and symposia for the industry. Jim‘s many achievements in moving the Institute forward and promoting and supporting the industry is unmatched by any other IISRP current or past leader.
Dr. Guy Wouters spent more than 20 years in the elastomers technology where he pioneered the development of EPDM silane grafting and then focused on the development of new EPDM rubber grades from bench scale to commercial production. He also contributed significantly to product innovation with tailored molecular weight distribution. In this respect, Dr. Wouters developed the use of linear and non-linear rheology and of Mooney stress relaxation to correlate EPDM elastomers structure with processability and properties and more specifically to quantify the impact of EPDM macromolecular parameters and long chain branching on rubber compounds viscoelasticity and processing. He exploited these tools to design and develop new bimodal EPDM polymer structures and products and to develop a range of new commercial metallocene catalyzed EPDM elastomers having excellent processability.
Dr. Wouters is the inventor or co-inventor of over 20 patents, and has authored or co-authored sixteen scientific and technical papers. He retired from ExxonMobil in 2012 and is now a consultant in elastomers chemistry and technology.
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