Purdue News
Purdue News
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December 18, 1998
Purdue innovation named in top 25 technologiesNOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A color photo of Purdue Professor Edward Grant using the new device to identify the plastic in an automobile headlight is available. The photo is called Grant.plastics. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A new device designed to quickly and easily identify plastics so they can be sorted for recycling has been named a winner in Industry Week magazine's sixth annual Technology and Innovation Awards Program. The device, developed by a group of Purdue University researchers and manufactured by SpectraCode Inc. in Purdue's Industrial Research Park, may help to save billions of pounds of plastics that now are landfilled or incinerated every year, said Edward Grant, Purdue professor of chemistry and chief executive officer of SpectraCode. The editors of Industry Week selected the device, called the RP-1 Polymer Identification System, as one of 25 Technologies of the Year for 1998. A complete list of the winners and a profile of each winning technology are featured in Industry Week's Dec. 21 issue and at www.industryweek.com. To select the winners, the editors solicit reader nominations for a judging process designed to recognize outstanding achievement in technology, said John R. Brandt, editor-in-chief. To be eligible, candidate technologies must relate in a significant way to accomplishments and achievements in the current year. The RP-1 Polymer Identification System was developed by a group led by Grant and Dor Ben-Amotz, professor of chemistry. The group drew upon technologies used in their laboratories at Purdue to develop the new device, which will allow commercial and community recyclers to easily identify and sort a wide range of plastics. Co-inventors sharing the award are Kenneth Haber, manager of the chemistry department's laser facility, and George Laurence, a senior from West Lafayette who is majoring in chemistry. Earlier this fall, the RP-1 Polymer Identification System was named one of the year's 100 most technologically significant products and processes by R&D Magazine. Winners of Industry Week's Technology and Innovation Awards span the entire range of science and engineering. The editors seek developments that show high potential for redirecting business opportunities and creating new growth in the manufacturing world, Brandt said. Among this year's winners are software and hardware solutions for manufacturing, new computer-aided systems for management decision-making, R&D developments with the potential for creating new industries, and commercial products that represent bellwethers for fundamental change. CONTACTS: Brandt, (216) 931-9443; e-mail, jbrandt@industryweek.com; Grant, (765) 494-9006; e-mail, egrant@chem.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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