New Advisory Board for Fraunhofer Composites Centre

November 30, 2013 - Canada

Western University announced the new Advisory Board for the Fraunhofer Project Centre (FPC) for Composites Research at Western. Charter members of the Advisory Board include game-changing leaders from the fields of chemical and materials engineering, as well as visionary thinkers from the automotive and machinery sectors.

The inaugural FPC at Western Advisory Board includes:

- Creig Bowland, Global LFT Technical Leader & Senior Research Associate, PPG Fiber Glass

- Michael Connolly, Product Manager, Urethane Composites, Global Business Development Team, Huntsman

- Justin Gammage, Chief Scientist, General Motors of Canada Ltd.

- Klaus Gleich, Senior Research Associate & Manager, Sizing Technology Group, Corporate R&D Technical Center, Johns Manville

- Matthias Graf, Technical Director of the Business Unit Forming, Dieffenbacher GMBH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Germany

- John Paul Mead, Vice-President, Reaction Process Machinery, Krauss Maffei Corporation

The Advisory Board will provide invaluable insight and resources to influence and further enhance the FPC at Western leadership team, which includes Institute Managing Director Frank Henning, Deputy Institute Director Andrew Hrymak and Manager of Operations Tobias Potyra.

"I truly believe that we have assembled an advisory board second-to-none to support FPC at Western as we embark on what I hope will be a long and prosperous research-driven venture here in London, Ontario," says Hrymak, who serves as dean of Western's Faculty of Engineering.

"It is a tremendous privilege to have these leaders offer expertise to what we are building and I know we can deliver globally-significant advancements in composites research with their support," says Henning, also Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal, Germany.

Western and Fraunhofer ICT launched FPC at Western – a long-term research collaboration on composite technologies for weight reduction – in 2011. FPC at Western develops materials with specific desirable properties, particularly those that are lightweight or have low life-cycle impact for manufacturers in automotive, transportation, construction, defense and renewable energy sectors.