Biography

Dr. Richard J. Spontak is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at North Carolina State University. He received the B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors/high distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983 and was later awarded the Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering (under the supervision of Mike Williams) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research with Alan Windle in Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) and Tormod Riste in Condensed Matter Physics at the Institutt for Energiteknikk (Norway) before joining the Corporate Research Division of the Procter & Gamble Company in 1990. In 1992, he accepted a faculty position at North Carolina State University, where he supervises the Polymer Morphology Group. Since that time, Spontak has published over 275 research papers, and his work has been featured on the cover of 19 journals and 1 book. Although active in a diverse range of disciplines, his primary research interests relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, polymer nanocomposites, electron microscopy, and stimuli-responsive media including organogels. In recognition of his fundamental and applied research endeavors, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards such as the Sigma Xi Outstanding Research Award, the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Achievement and Distinguished Engineering Research Awards, Alexander von Humboldt and Tewkesbury fellowships, the North Carolina State University Alumni Outstanding Research Award, the 2006 American Chemical Society (PMSE Division) Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science & Engineering, the 2007 German Society for Electron Microscopy Ernst Ruska Prize, the 2008 American Chemical Society (Rubber Division) Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award, the 2011 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) Colwyn Medal, and the 2012 Norwegian University of Science & Technology Lars Onsager Medal. An elected fellow of the American Physical Society and IOM3, he is or has been on the editorial advisory board of 17 international journals and is editor-in-chief of 3 of them. He has been recognized as a 2007 Outstanding Scholar Alumnus and a 2012 Alumni Fellow by the Pennsylvania State University. Spontak is also a highly acclaimed educator and academic mentor. For his instructional effectiveness employing cooperative and active learning pedagogies in the classroom, he has been elected to the North Carolina State University Academy of Outstanding Teachers and selected for the UNC System Board of Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest instructional honor bestowed by the University of North Carolina system. He has been active in promoting multidisciplinary undergraduate research and design, for which he received the 2006 International Network for Engineering Education & Research Recognition Award and the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Region Outstanding Mid-Career Teaching Award. He resides in Raleigh with his wife Josephine and his two children, Danielle and Joshua.