Lifetime Technical Achievement Award

INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award Graphic

Criteria & Eligibility

The INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award will recognize an individual whose technical achievements, over a career of 20 years or more, have meaningfully contributed to the growth of the nonwovens industry. This technical professional will have a long history of innovation, INDA involvement, and/or commercial success as noted below:

Lifetime Technical Achievement Award Criteria

  1. Nonwovens-related technical advancements that meaningfully contributed to the growth of the nonwovens industry. Measures of meaningful contribution can include:
    • Commercialized technologies
    • Commercialized products
    • Patent portfolio
    • Presentations
    • Scholarly publications
    • Academic training of nonwovens professionals
    • Establishment of nonwoven test standards (ASTM, ISO, INDA/EDANA, etc.)
    • Recognition within internal/external organizations for their technical contributions, etc.
  2. Membership in INDA for period of ten or more years
  3. Twenty years or more in a nonwovens-related position

Nomination Process & Timeline

Awards Process

  1. Nominations for both award categories will be submitted via the INDA website.Deadline for submission will generally be three weeks prior to the April TAB meeting.
  2. Nominations that are not selected will remain active for three years from submission date and reviewed each year, with any new or additional information since the prior year.
  3. Nominations for both awards will be reviewed annually at the April TAB meeting.
  4. Each nomination will be reviewed independently for acceptance and successful nominations will achieve positive votes from 75% or more of voting TAB members
  5. The combined maximum awards in a given year will be four, with no more than three awards from a single category – Lifetime Technical Achievement or Lifetime Service.
  6. If the number of successful awards exceeds the maximum (four total, three from one category) noted in point 5, the recipients of the current year awards will be determined as follows:
    • Highest percentage of positive votes
    • Retired, selecting retirees over those still active in the industry
    • TAB Chair & INDA Technical Director will decide a tiebreaker
    • If the TAB Chair & INDA Technical Director are unable to decide a tiebreaker, then the INDA President will select the award recipient
  7. Once the award recipients are finalized, they will be notified and asked at which INDA event they would like to be recognized (WOW, RISE®, HYGIENIX™, FILTXPO™, or IDEA®).
  8. Those nominations not chosen for recognition within the current year will be automatically rolled over to the following year for consideration.

Online Nomination Submission

Prior Winners

Lifetime Technical Achievement Awards Winners

2024 Arnold Wilkie Hills Inc.
2023 Seshadri Ramkumar, Ph.D. Texas Tech University
2023 James "Jim" Robinson Absorbent Hygiene Insights LLC
2023 Ed Thomas  
2022 Richard Knowlson  
2021 John F. Poccia III Johnson & Johnson (retired) and Poccia Consulting LLC
2019 Stephen Chester  
2018 Ralph Moody, PE Berry Global, Inc
2017 Bryan Haynes, Ph.D. Kimberly-Clark Corporation
2016 Edward (Ed) A. Vaughn, Ph.D. Clemson University
2015 Thomas W. Federle The Procter & Gamble Co.
2014 Joseph D. Wahlquist Rockline Industries
2012 David L. Lunceford HDK Industries, Inc.
2011 Mike Putnam Retired, PGI
2010 Terry Young Procter & Gamble
2009 Benham Pourdeyhimi North Carolina University
2008 Larry Wadsworth (Academic) The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
2008 David Newkirk (Industry) Fiberweb
2007 Kays Chinai Johnson & Johnson, Rayonier
2006 Ann L. McCormack Kimberly-Clark Corporation
2006 P.C. Wu Clopay Plastic Products Company
2005 C.Y. Cheng Consultant
2004 Mike Morman Morman Consulting
2003 D.K. Smith Smith, Johnson & Associates
2002 Subhash Batra NCRC, NCSU
2002 Jay Sommers Kimberly-Clark
2001 Robert Brock Kimberly-Clark
2001 Nick Newman Consultant

All nominations will be reviewed annually in the first quarter.

Hall of Fame

Questions

Matt O'Sickey, Ph.D.
Director of Education & Technical Affairs
mosickey@inda.org
(O) +1 919 459 3738