UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 39, Page 11
August 4, 1994
Richard P. Wool named to direct composite center

     Richard P. Wool has been appointed director of the Center for
Composite Materials and professor in the Department of Chemical
Engineering at the University.
     Currently professor of materials science and engineering and
director of the Degradable Plastics Laboratory at the University of
Illinois, Wool will assume his new position at the University of
Delaware in January.
     Roy L. McCullough, who has served as center director since 1990,
returned to the chemical engineering faculty Aug. 1.
     He will retain his affiliations with the center through contracts
and grants, including the ARO/URI manufacturing science program in
polymer composites and the recently awarded ARPA-TRP project with
Michigan State University to develop a composites manufacturing
training program for the Department of Defense and industry.
     Karl V. Steiner, assistant director of the Center for Composite
Materials and an associate scientist at the center, is serving as
interim center director until January.
     "Prof. Wool, who has distinguished himself in the fields of
polymer materials science and engineering, is an outstanding
individual who, I believe, will successfully lead the center forward,"
Stuart L. Cooper, dean of the College of Engineering, said in
announcing the appointment. "He is optimistic and enthusiastic about
the exciting developments taking place in the center and is eager to
associate himself with the faculty and staff here at Delaware. I look
forward to working with him in the College of Engineering."
     Wool received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the
University College, Cork, Ireland, and his master's and doctoral
degrees in materials science and engineering from the University of
Utah.
     While at Illinois, he has served on the Governor's Committee on
Degradable Plastics, the vice chancellor's committee for the
environment and was on the executive committee for the College of
Engineering.
     A fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of several
professional societies including the American Chemical Society, the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Rheology and
the Society of Plastics Engineers, he has been a guest professor at
Ecole Polytechnique and at Politecnico di Milano.
     Wool's areas of professional expertise include polymer materials
science and engineering, composites, fracture mechanics, strength of
polymer interfaces, biodegradable plastics, plastics engineering,
polymer characterization, spectroscopy and polymer physics.
     He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and a book,
Structure and Strength of Polymer Interfaces, and he holds two patents
on starch-based degradable polymers. He also has made five Gordon
Conference presentations.
     Steiner earned his master's degree in electrical engineering at
the University of Delaware, after completing his undergraduate work in
the same field in West Germany. He first came to the center in 1984 on
an exchange fellowship from the Carl Duisberg Society.
     His current research interests include robotic filament
winding/tape placement of thermoplastic composites, robotic ultrasonic
nondestructive evaluation and image enhancement techniques.
     He is a member of the Society for the Advancement of Materials
and Process Engineering (SAMPE) and the American Society for Testing
Materials (ASTM).
     Steiner is completing his doctoral degree, in collaboration with
the Institute for Composite Materials (IWV) at the University of
Kaiserslautern in Germany, under the advisorship of Klaus Friedrich.
His dissertation focuses on the employment of a robotic workcell for
fiber placement of thermoplastic composites.
     "I am looking forward to serving the center as interim director,"
Steiner said. "This is an exciting time for us, with the center's 20th
anniversary symposium celebration coming up and numerous major
national initiatives under the ARPA-TRP and other programs beginning
this summer.
     "These programs have placed us in a strategic position with
regard to the nation's composites industry. We hope to attract an
increasing number of industrial sponsors to the center to be leveraged
with these efforts."
                                                          -Beth Thomas