PlastChicks

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Nathan Rader-Edkin, Plastics Innovation and Resource Center Program Manager, Pennsylvania College of Technology, a Plastics News Rising Star for 2023, and a co-founder of a new plastics career site, PlasticsPostings.com.

They discuss his plastics industry career journey, parenting, injection molding, the importance of industry experience to an academic career, and the role of the Pennsylvania College of Technology's Plastics Innovation and Resource Center.

Find out more about the Pennsylvania College of Technology and the PlasticsPostings.com career site.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube Channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Dr. Sherrika Sanders, Senior Technical Engineer, Manner Polymers and member of the SPE DEI Advisory Board. They discuss her career journey, being one of the Hidden Figures of Dallas, developing small molecules to authenticate fuel and consumer goods, the use of PVC in building and construction, SPE Foundation's PlastiVan program, and the importance of STEM programs in developing the next generation of scientists.

Find out more about SPE Foundation’s PlastiVan program, designed to excite students about opportunities in science and engineering within the plastics industry.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Rashed Islam, Head of Product Integrity at Lyft - Transit, Bikes, and Scooters. They discuss his journey in his product integrity career, working at Google and Lyft, the challenges of implementing recycled plastics in products, sustainable transportation design, eStation strategies, the Lyft Micromobility Lab, and testing for different environments and conditions.

Essentials of Management & Leadership in Plastics is a six-month virtual program open to early to mid-level career professionals who would like to be leaders or strengthen their leadership skills in the plastics industry. No other Leadership Certificate program exists that is specifically designed for those in the plastics industry.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host 3Dnatives guests Alexandre Martel, Co-Founder, and Filippos Voulpiotis, Chief Business Officer. They discuss the role of 3Dnatives as a reliable source of information on the latest trends of the Additive Manufacturing market, common misconceptions about additive manufacturing, the careful work that goes into producing content tailored to multiple languages and their audiences, and the synergies between SPE and 3Dnatives that led to SPE's acquisition of 3Dnatives.

Essentials of Management & Leadership in Plastics is a six-month virtual program open to early to mid-level career professionals who would like to be leaders or strengthen their leadership skills in the plastics industry. No other Leadership Certificate program exists that is specifically designed for those in the plastics industry.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host four of the 2022 SPE Foundation Scholarship winners: Rachel LeBlanc, Allen Román, Kelsey Allis, and Wyatt McGraw. The SPE Foundation is an arm of SPE that supports the development of plastics professionals by funding quality educational programs, grants, and scholarships, emphasizing science, engineering, sustainability, and manufacturing to create inclusive opportunities for students around the world.

The 2023-2024 Foundation Scholarships deadline is April 1.  Learn more about SPE Foundation Scholarships.

Get details on the 2023 Re|Focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit, being held May 1-4, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and save 30% on the non-member registration rate using the discount code, PlastChicks. The Summit is hosted by the Plastics Industry Association, a PlastChicks supporter.

Scholarship Winners Featured

Rachel LeBlanc is in the 5th-year of her Senior/Masters program at Case Western Reserve, studying Macromolecular Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on thermoplastic polyurethanes as materials for prosthetics. After graduation, she hopes to start her career in the medical devices industry or pursue a Masters in Engineering Management. She is helping create an educational demo/video for the city of Cleveland showing the importance of reducing contamination in the recycling stream. Rachel was awarded the Thermoplastics Elastomers Technical Interest Group Scholarship, SPE Foundation Gail Bristol Scholarship, and PPA Clare Goldsberry Scholarship.

Allen Román is a Ph. D. student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying Mechanical Engineering and working under Tim Osswald. He was awarded the Donald McCoy Chicago SPE Scholarship. He donated part of the scholarship back to the scholarship program from which he benefited as a first-generation college student.

Kelsey Allis is a Senior at Western Washington University, studying Polymer Material Engineering. She has worked closely with injection molding machines and is active in SPE Student Chapter. She organized a beach clean-up with the local Surfrider chapter as SPE Student Outreach Officer. She was awarded the Recycling Division Scholarship, Western Plastics Pioneers George Epstein Scholarship, and PPA Neward Scholarship.

Wyatt McGraw is a Senior at Shawnee State University, studying Plastics Engineering Technology. He has completed many internships focused on blow molding and flexible packaging. He is active in the SPE Student Chapter. He was awarded the Flexible Packaging Division Scholarship, PPA W. Muller Scholarship, and Blow Molding Division Willi Muller Scholarship.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is supported by Plastics Industry Association and sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Ed Hall, President and CEO of Baerlocher USA, discuss Ed's career journey, the importance of ethics and diversity in the workforce, Baerlocher USA's move into sustainability and services, and the need for the plastics industry to get together to teach, learn and collaborate in their approach to finding recycling solutions.

Find out more about the 2023 Re|Focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit, being held May 1-4, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and save 30% on the non-member registration rate using the discount code, PlastChicks. The Summit is hosted by the Plastics Industry Association.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is supported by Plastics Industry Association and sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Look for new episodes the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Mason Myers, Principal Implementation Consultant at Autodesk, discuss the advantages of using simulation software to make it easier to get a process up and running, saving time and money using simulations, Autodesk's Moldflow Simulation software, and automation software advances in meshing and Cloud solving.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals and is posted the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Neil Thompson, Founder of Teach the Geek, author and podcaster of Teach the Geek to Speak, discuss helping STEM professionals develop their presentation skills to further their career development, the challenges engineers face when communicating to a non-technical audience, attributes of engaging and unengaging presentations and dealing with presentation fears.

You can find out more about developing engaging presentations from Neil on his website, Teach the Geek; his podcast, Teach the Geek to Speak; his YouTube Channel, Teach the Geek; and in his book, Teach the Geek to Speak.

Watch the PlastChicks podcast on the SPE YouTube channel.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals and is posted the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Dr. Katrina Knauer, Program Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and CTO of the BOTTLE (Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment) Consortium discuss attaining your ideal job in your plastics career; Katrina’s research into deconstructing plastics to get useful chemicals and building blocks out of the process -- pure and useful monomers -- without needing energy-intensive processes; and low-energy, tandem design of chemical and biological processes to convert highly contaminated mixed waste into high-value polymers used for a variety of biodegradable products.

Find out more about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NERL) and the BOTTLE™ Consortium.

Watch the podcast at the SPE YouTube site.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals and is posted the first Friday of every month.

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Pat Haney, Research and Development Engineer, MTD Micromolding, examine research and development in micro-medical plastics injection molding; the unique challenges of super-small molding, including differences in non-Newtonian fluid behavior, shear thinning and crystalline formation; processes for developing implant molds; designing for bioabsorbables; tooling for micromolding; finding a bridge between university research and the plastics industry; and MTD Micromolding's protyping pipeline.

Watch the podcast at the SPE YouTube site.

PlastChicks is sponsored by SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals and is posted the first Friday of every month.