UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2023 David Ford McFarland Award for Achievement in Metallurgy lecture will be held at 3:05 p.m. Thursday, April 13, in 111 Wartik Laboratory on the Penn State University Park campus. David Simpson, senior polymer advocacy adviser at ExxonMobil Chemical, will deliver the lecture “Reflections on a career in the polymer industry” and receive the 2023 McFarland Award.
Simpson’s lecture will focus on his personal and professional experiences from his career in the industrial industry, highlighting lessons learned and opportunities.
Simpson received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in polymer science from Penn State. He started his career at Norton Performance Plastics Corporation as a process engineer in the fabrication of fluoropolymer films. He moved to Union Carbide Corporation working in polyethylene product development and played a key role in understanding polymer composition and structure-property relationships in new polyethylene products. Simpson then joined Univation Technologies, a joint venture between Union Carbide and Exxon Chemicals, where he was responsible for new product development and support for technology licensing efforts. He joined Quintec Films as technical director and developed novel seven-layer polyethylene film constructions for food packaging and pallet unitization.
In 2000, Simpson joined ExxonMobil Chemicals in polyethylene product development. Later, he began a series of commercial roles that included market development, supply chain, product management and financial planning management. Simpson returned to a technical role as the market-facing manager for customer support for North and South America and became the global product development leader for new polyethylene products. In 2021, Simpson moved to product stewardship and regulatory affairs and was named senior polymer advocacy advisor where he works with governments, trade associations and NGOs to ensure new regulations for polymers are fair, balanced and science based.
The David Ford McFarland Award for Achievement in Metallurgy was established in 1948 by the Penn State Chapter of the American Society for Metals (now ASM International) to honor graduates of Penn State who have honorably distinguished themselves in some field of metallurgy. The award was named in honor of David Ford McFarland, former professor and department head.