Thursday, September 12, 2024, 10:30 am Location – Wu and Chen Auditorium
Kumar Sanketh, R&D Director for Functional Polymers
The Dow Corporation
Abstract: Materials and chemicals impact daily life, as they enable modern healthcare, preservation of food, and delivering performance and efficiency of transportation and infrastructure. The talk will focus on Dow’s vision and path for carbon neutrality. An overview of Dow Chemical’s portfolio and the breadth of chemistries being practiced will be discussed. Dow has a vision of being carbon neutral by 2050 and recycling 3MM MT of plastics by 2030. To meet this ambitious goal, innovation is being focused on four different fronts related to sustainable chemistry and Engineering. They include Reducing Hazards, Atom economy, Energy footprint, & Holistic design. Case studies will be presented on how innovation in these spaces is being developed and commercialized. To address the complex challenges in sustainable materials and circularity there is a need for collaborative efforts across Industry, academia, and government policy. In this regard, some of the challenges which can be considered for collaboration will be presented.