Dr Uday Vaidya, a professor at University of Tennessee-Knoxville and chief technology officer for the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation has been named the SPE Composites Division's 2015-2016 Composites Person of the Year.
The Composites Person of the Year award publicly acknowledges a contributor who has provided significant aid to the SPE Composites Division, particularly during the prior year, as well as made broader contributions to the composites industry as a whole.
Dr Vaidya, who was honored during the 2016 SPE show, has contributed extensively to research and development of engineered polymers, fibers, and composites and has experience with a broad range of composites for defense, transportation, and industrial applications. Additionally, he has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 100 projects worth over US$22 million to date.
The professor is also principal and co-founder of Innovative Composite Solutions (ICS), an Alabama company that was established in 2009. ICS has commercial ventures with high-tech, lightweight composite products for the infrastructure/buildings, power transmission, defense, biomedical devices, and commodity markets. Vaidya also has served as consultant for a number of companies producing fiber-reinforced plastic piping, power/energy, and plastic products. Dr Vaidya has also been published in over 180 peer-reviewed international journals and over 350 conference proceedings. He has 29 years' teaching experience at five academic institutions where he has taught and mentored hundreds of engineering students and has received numerous teaching awards.
Fostering development ‘Uday was chosen for his long-time contributions to the SPE Composites Division, including nine years of leadership on the education committee and eight years organizing the SPE ACCE student poster competition,’ said Dr Michael Connolly, SPE Composites Division chair and program manager, urethane composites, at Huntsman Polyurethanes. ‘Last year he created a new program under the education committee that helps universities apply for funding from the Composites Division — with university matching funds — to purchase teaching materials and laboratory equipment. In addition to these contributions, his effort fostering student development by organizing and advising a new SPE student chapter at University of Tennessee-Knoxville benefits all of SPE as well as the plastics and composites industries.’
This story is reprinted from material from SPE, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.