Dr Austin Coffey, an engineering lecturer and Principal Investigator with the Convergent Technologies Research Group (CTRG) in South East Technological University (WIT), was elected President of Divisions of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) at the society’s annual conference in Florida, USA (April 2015).
Dr Coffey is the first European to be appointed to this position within the SPE, a network of over 20,000 members. The appointment is for a one year term.
According to Dr Coffey, “This is a unique opportunity to provide a real networking opportunity to industry and academic professionals in Ireland and abroad to engage in collaborative engagement and open innovation to realise and deliver on strengthening indigenous growth and secure sustainable high value employment in the manufacturing sectors.”
The Society of Plastics Engineers is the world’s foremost community and authority on plastics engineering and encompasses industries such as the medical devices, automotive, pharmaceuticals, construction and materials processing. There are a number of divisions within the SPE, including injection moulding, extrusion, thermoforming, rapid prototyping, design and failure analysis.
Dr Austin Coffey, BSc, MSc, PhD, MBA, MSPE, MIEI, MIOM, is a lecturer in the Department of Engineering Technology at SETU. He is also Principal Investigator with the Convergent Technologies Research Group (CTRG). CTRG is a multi-disciplinary research cluster within the School of Engineering, combining expertise in various fields of technology to deliver innovative solutions for wide-ranging applications. Current research activities traverse infrastructural technologies (water, energy and the environment), materials development (polymeric formulations, polymer processing and super-critical fluid enabled technologies) and passive and active medical devices (mock cardiovascular loops, catheter technologies and implantable platforms). Dr Coffey is also the Councillor for the European Medical Polymers Division and on the Board of Directors for the US Medical Plastics divisions of the SPE.
For Further Information
Further information on the Society of Plastics Engineers can be found at www.4spe.org.
For more information on CRTG, visit www.wit.ie/crtg.