{"id":71298,"date":"2002-02-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-02-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/ford-scientist-to-lead-polymer-engineering-program-at-uri\/"},"modified":"2002-02-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-02-11T00:00:00","slug":"ford-scientist-to-lead-polymer-engineering-program-at-uri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2002\/02\/ford-scientist-to-lead-polymer-engineering-program-at-uri\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford scientist to lead polymer engineering program at 溏心vlog免费B站"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tServes as Victor Baxt Endowed Chair of Polymer Engineering
\n <\/p>\n

\tKINGSTON, R.I. — February 11, 2002 — When Teknor Apex vice chairman Victor Baxt donated $1 million to the College of Engineering at the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1998, his goal was to help his alma mater become a leader in the field of polymer engineering, the process used to create plastics. <\/p>\n

\tThe University took a major step toward that goal with the recent hiring of Michael Greenfield, a former Ford Motor Company research scientist, to serve as the first Victor J. Baxt Endowed Chair of Polymer Engineering. <\/p>\n

\t“Victor saw a real need for a polymer engineering program in Rhode Island, and his donation will help make it happen,” said Thomas Kim, dean of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Engineering. “Mike Greenfield has some remarkable achievements to his name, and we see him having a major impact in the College for many years to come.” <\/p>\n

\tOriginally from Fairport, N.Y. and now living in Providence, Greenfield was collecting an award from the American Chemical Society for his polymer research when he met a chemist at Ford Motor Company. “What does a chemist do at Ford?” Greenfield asked the man. A lot, it turns out. <\/p>\n

Greenfield soon began a six-year stint as a chemical engineer at the Ford Research Lab, where he searched for scientific breakthroughs that would help make automobiles more friendly to the environment. Among other projects, he worked on developing alternative air conditioning systems that reduce global warming potential and studied transmission fluid additives that reduce friction and increase fuel efficiency. <\/p>\n

\tWhile working at Ford, Greenfield taught a graduate level course in polymer engineering at Wayne State University and realized how much he enjoyed teaching. <\/p>\n

\t“I really like explaining things,” he said. “I get a great deal of satisfaction when someone has that little light bulb go on in their head, when they really get it. And I like making analogies \u2013 that\u2019s something my students will pick up on \u2013 because it helps make ideas accessible. I think it\u2019s important to understand the big picture in order to understand how the details fit together and why they\u2019re important.” <\/p>\n

\tBesides teaching courses in polymer engineering, Greenfield will coordinate the polymer program at 溏心vlog免费B站 and pursue his own polymer research. <\/p>\n

\t“There\u2019s lots of polymer research going on here on campus, but it\u2019s just not coordinated all together,” he said. “I want to create a forum to bring together everyone who\u2019s involved in polymers so we can interact and learn about the problems each is working on. It will also provide students with a broad perspective of the field.” <\/p>\n

\tA graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the University of California at Berkeley, Greenfield\u2019s research interest is in the area of additives in lubricants and polymers. He wants to better understand how they enhance the physical properties of a polymer or how they prevent a certain chemical reaction from happening. <\/p>\n

\t“Plasticizers, for instance, are added to polymers to make plastic more flexible,” he notes. “On the molecular level, I want to know how the plasticizer functions. That\u2019s one of many questions I\u2019ll be looking into.” <\/p>\n

For Information: Todd McLeish 874-7892\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serves as Victor Baxt Endowed Chair of Polymer Engineering KINGSTON, R.I. — February 11, 2002 — When Teknor Apex vice chairman Victor Baxt donated $1 million to the College of Engineering at the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1998, his goal was to help his alma mater become a leader in the field of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}