• The 2023 Fernley H. Banbury Award, sponsored by Ace Laboratories in Ravenna, Ohio, goes to John Putman.
Putman is a 40-year industry entrepreneur who invented the rubber chemical dispersion PolyGel while he was with Polymerics. While he was with Monsanto, he was the engineering specialist for rest-of-the-world training.
He also was the second employee of testing firm ARDL, the Akron Rubber Development Laboratory. Putnam earned his bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Akron.
In 1982 he co formed Tech Pro, Inc. for which he was able to provide the first data acquisition systems in his industry. He continued to lead the development team and co-authored numerous patents. Tech Pro was acquired by Roper Industries in 2008.
This ACS Rubber Division award honors the memory of Fernley H. Banbury, the inventor of the internal mixer that takes his name today. The award, established in 1986, typically goes to an innovator of product equipment instrumentation or control systems that are widely used in the rubber industry.
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