Why Work In An Industrial Research Laboratory?  Cataysis Looks to the Future.

Charles T. Kresge
Global R&D Director for Research and Engineering Sciences, Core Research & Development
The Dow Chemical Company

Contrary to some opinions, research and development is alive and well in corporate chemical laboratories.  This talk will provide a personal tour to what can be done in Corporate R&D laboratories.

Date: Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Place: ESB 1001 (Engineering Sciences Building)

ABSTRACT

His career with Dow began in 1999 when Kresge joined Corporate R&D in Midland as Global R&D Director.  Before joining Dow, Kresge was a senior member of the technical leadership for the Strategic Research Center, Mobil Technology Company, Mobil Corporation.  He joined Mobil in 1979 as a research chemist in the Catalyst Synthesis & Development Group in Paulsboro, New Jersey.  Kresge then went on to hold various research positions dealing with the discovery, development, and commercialization of catalytic materials and processes.  In 1985, Kresge joined W. R. Grace & Company as Group Head, Fluid Catalytic Cracking Research.  He returned to Mobil in 1987 to become head of the Exploratory Synthesis & Characterization Group at Mobil's Paulsboro, New Jersey, Laboratory.  In 1993, Kresge became head of Mobil's activities for catalyst synthesis, characterization, and applications at Mobil's Princeton and Paulsboro, New Jersey, Research Laboratories.  This role was expanded in 1995 to include membranes, separations media, and inorganic materials science.  Kresge became the technology leader and chief scientist for exploratory materials chemistry research at Mobil in 1997.  In April 1999, Kresge joined Dow to assume his current position.

Kresge is the co-recipient of The Donald W. Breck Award in Molecular Sieve Science; recipient of an R&D 100 Award for Innovation and The Robert A. Welch Foundation Invited Lectureship in Nanochemistry; Chair, Gordon Research Conferences on Zeolitic and Layered Materials; Guest Editor, Current Chemistry:  Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science; Editorial Board, Journal of Solid State Chemistry and Advanced Functional Materials; member of the Boards for the International Zeolite Association, Mesoporous Materials Association, and the International Congress on Catalysis; member, Council of the Gordon Research Conferences; member, Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Research Council; a member of the American Chemical Society, and a member of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Chemical Engineering Advisory Board.

Kresge holds over 100 patents dealing with novel catalysts and their applications.  He has presented over 50 invited talks and plenary lectures to the materials and catalysis communities and is the author of over 50 articles in scientific literature dealing with catalytic materials.  Kresge is listed as one of the 100 most cited authors of the last ten years.  His work was cited as one of the most important discoveries in chemistry in the last 75 years by the American Chemical Society.

Kresge holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Swarthmore College and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara.