Tape Academy Faculty
Experienced, dedicated PSTC Tape Training classes faculty members are active within the tape industry and daily experience the specific skills needed to excel. They share their love and knowledge of the PSA tape industry with students in a casual atmosphere that promotes information exchange between faculty and students.
Lars Kilian, Ph.D.
About
Sr. Group Leader of the Pressure Sensitive Adhesives R&D group at Bostik, Inc. in Dublin, OH. Kilian leads product development efforts for high-performance permanent and removable acrylic PSAs for the tape and label industries. Previously, he was a Research Scientist in Ashland’s Packaging and Converting R&D group, developing solvent-based and waterborne acrylic PSAs. His technical efforts were primarily focused on solution and emulsion acrylic polymerization, coater-ready PSA formulation product development, and PSA test method development. Lars received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph. D. in Organic Polymer Chemistry at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
Roopram Ramharack, Ph.D.
About
Roopram previously worked in Research at 3M, Polaroid and Unilever. He was the Vice President of Operations and HR at Adchem Corp and the Vice President for R&D for tesa tape inc (Beiersdorf). Roopram has a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU. He is a two time winner of the Carl Dahlquist Award and is in the Hall of Fame at PSTC. He holds eight patents and fifteen journal papers.
Roland H. Horst, Ph.D.
About
Roland H. Horst, Ph. D., studied chemistry and polymer science at the University of Mainz, Germany, and received his doctorate in 1992. He worked at Mainz University as a research associate and lecturer. He was awarded a German Science Foundation Fellowship for his postdoctoral research the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1998. He stayed there as a research associate and lecturer until he joined Berry Global in 2004 as a rheologist. He then took on responsibilities for all analytical testing and is now the Product Development Manager in their Franklin KY facility. He was on the Technical Committee from 2014 to 2018, and serves on the Test Methods Committee since 2019 and the Education Committee since 2022.
Ricardo Soto
Classes: Manufacturing and Testing
About
Ricardo Soto is an Application Technical Engineer, he has been working for Avery Dennison Performance Tapes for more than 8 years and previous to that he worked for a PSA converter for 3 years, his specialty revolves around PSA testing, coating and converting.. He graduated from the Nuevo Leon University (UANL) in Monterrey, Mexico with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical & Electrical Engineering and as an MBA from the Valle de Mexico University (UVM). He has built his professional education around PSA Tapes; in 2021 he wrote an article about “PSA Tapes in HVAC Applications” for the Appliance & HVAC Report Magazine, he is the current coordinator of PSA Tape Academy in Avery Dennison Performance Tapes.
Svetlana Contrada
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Svetlana Contrada obtained her Bachelor and Master of Science in Polymer Physics and Chemistry from Moscow Academy of Fine Chemical Technology and Ph.D. in Polymer Science from Moscow Research Institute for Plastics in Russia. She holds an MBA in Business Strategy from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She started her career in Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive industry over 25 years ago in product development and joined PSTC in 1999 where over the years she has been a member of the Test Methods Committee and Technical Seminar Committee, and a Chair of PSTC Technical Conference in Nashville, TN in 2014. Currently she is a Product Development Manager for Berry Global, leading R&D projects in the areas of medical and specialty adhesive tapes. Svetlana holds numerous patents in PSA tapes field. Her area of interest includes adhesives and tapes development, modification, and characterization techniques.
Cathy Stewart
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Cathy Stewart is a retired Senior Scientist for Intertape Polymer Group’s R&D facility in Marysville, Michigan. With over 45 years of experience as an analytical chemist, she currently works for IPG as a consultant. Since joining IPG 2006, she has done extensive method development in Thermal Gravimetric Analysis, FT-IR, Gel Permeation Chromatography, the reverse engineering of adhesives, and the pyrolysis-GC/MS analysis of adhesives, polymers, and resins. Prior to IPG, she spent 16 years at National Steel as an oil chemist and as an expert in microbiological corrosion. She is an Education Advisor for the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council and member of the PSTC Tape Academy Committee.
Mrinal Mahapatro, Ph.D.
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Mrinal Mahapatro, Ph.D. is currently Product Development Manager at Ahlstrom Corporation where he supports the development of release liner technologies for a variety of markets including specialty label and tapes. Dr. Mahapatro holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Rice University, TX and a Ph.D. in Surface Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, U.K. During his career, he has attained extensive experience in the areas of adhesives, tribology, lubrication, and filtration technology.
Vance Thompson, Ph.D.
About
Vance Thompson is a Ph.D. chemist and is currently the laboratory manager of technology development for tesa tape North America (ttNA). Vance joined tesa tape in May of 2020 as a product developer for the automotive division before transitioning to technology development as the new department was established. Technology development at ttNA has two focus areas for disruptive innovations: waterborne adhesive development and new technologies. Vance has expertise in analytical techniques for both small molecules and polymers, waterborne emulsion technologies, and polymer and adhesive rheology. He strives for helping drive innovation for ttNA according to its mission and strategy and continue to maintain tesa as a market leader into the future.
Tim Mitchell
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Tim Mitchell is a Senior Research Scientist at Dow Chemical. He main role is product development within the Pressure Sensitive Industries group of Dow Consumer Solutions. Tim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan – Flint. He has been employed at Dow (Corning) for over twenty-eight years and in that time has worked on the development of silicone PSAs, silicone release coatings, silicone-acrylate hybrid PSAs, and acrylate PSA technologies.
Alan Cramer
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Alan Cramer serves as the Director of Technology at Mayzo Specialty Chemicals, a company with a rich history spanning over 35 years in the polymer performance additives sector, supporting the tape and label industry. In this role he leads the customer technical support and spearheads new product development. His area of expertise encompasses process development and synthetic chemistry, areas in which he has accumulated a decade of experience within the custom chemical manufacturing field. Prior to Mayzo, Dr. Cramer’s experience includes roles as the Director of R&D and Quality at FAR Chemical and was a part of the polyolefin catalyst team at Albemarle Corporation as a chemist. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Kennesaw State University and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Diana Proffit, Ph.D.
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Diana Proffit is a Technical Service & Development Scientist supporting Pressure Sensitive Industries business at Dow. She supports both innovation and maintenance of current business in silicone release coatings and silicone pressure sensitive adhesives. Prior to the TS&D role, she held positions in research and product development. Diana joined Dow (Corning) in 2011. Diana holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Northwestern University and a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from North Carolina State University. She is based in Midland, MI.
Steve Schroff
About
Business Development Chemist for Mactac North America. For over 20 years, Steve has been formulating adhesives and developing PSA laminates for medical devices used in the diagnostics, electrode, wound care, fenestration and packaging markets. He began his career at Adhesives Research in the medical R&D department before joining Mactac in 2003. While at Mactac, Steve has focused on expanding the medical product portfolio through R&D and sourcing initiatives as well as improving the manufacturing capabilities. In 2010 Steve began the work of transiting Mactac’s solvent adhesive systems used in medical and technical products over to 100% solids UV adhesive technology. He has also been instrumental in establishing Mactac’s new capabilities through his capital & process engineering efforts. Steve earned a B.S. in Chemistry & Mathematics from Thiel College.
Yayun Liu
About
25 years with Henkel/National starch & chemical, polymer science and chemical engineering background。 Extensive industrial R&D experience in adhesive product development, composite material, natural polymer for industrial, medical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor packaging, food applications. Currently is responsible for developing sustainable PSA product portfolio at Henkel, managing water base PSA North American portfolio, transdermal drug delivery adhesive development and global customer support.
Kiu-Yuen Tse
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Kiu-Yuen Tse, PhD, Lead Research Specialist at the 3M Corporate Research Materials Laboratory. He has 17-year experience of developing PSA for health care, electronics, industrial and consumer markets. Kiu-Yuen was the recipient for the 2016 PSTC Carl Dahlquist Award. In 2018 he was selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium. He joined 3M in 2007 upon completion of his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a B.S. equivalent in Chemistry from the University of Tuebingen, Germany.
Terri Carvagno, Ph.D.
Classes: Adhesives and Advanced Technologies
About
Research Associate for the Adhesive Solutions business of Synthomer plc delivering applications research, technical service, and manufacturing support. She has over 30 years of industrial experience in coatings and adhesives, holds over 20 US and international patents on the use of tackifiers and polyolefin polymers in adhesives, and received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. Terri was on the PSTC Technical Committee from 2008-2012.
Andreas Meier
About
Andreas Meier is the Director of Research and Development at tesa for North America. He started his career at a tesa 21 years ago in one of the manufacturing plants in Germany in the process development department, where he optimized design and manufacturing processes of pressure sensitive adhesives on solvent and hotmelt coating lines. Before moving to the US Andreas worked for 10 years in various positions at tesa HQ in Hamburg, Germany. He gained 3 years of experience as an international Application Solution Engineer for the BU Automotive and managed the Research and Development department of the BU Automotive for 5 years. Andreas received his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Hamburg, Germany and worked for 3 years as a Postdoc at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado on photo electrochemical conversion systems.
