Melanie Kostka has been awarded the Reifenhäuser Sponsorship Award on the occasion of IKV’s 30. International Colloquium Plastics Technology. With the Sponsorship Award, the Reifenhäuser company honoured the outstanding research work done by Melanie Kostka, who is employed as a scientific assistant at the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Markus Susoff is the new professor for plastics testing and polymer physics at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück and head of the laboratory of the same name in the plastics technology laboratory area. The successor to Prof. Dr. Norbert Vennemann intends to expand the laboratory's research competence in a targeted manner and is focusing on close cooperation with companies.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Markus Susoff is the new professor for plastics testing and polymer physics at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück and head of the laboratory of the same name in the plastics technology laboratory area. The successor to Prof. Dr. Norbert Vennemann intends to expand the laboratory's research competence in a targeted manner and is focusing on close cooperation with companies.

Andreas Fischer has been named Evonik's new chief innovation officer, effective from 1 July 2020. He succeeds Ulrich Küsthardt, who has held this position since 2015 and is now taking early retirement.

Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann is the new President of PlasticsEurope, the association of plastics manufacturers in Europe. Steilemann was appointed to the position on 24 June 2020 for three years. He succeeds Javier Constante of Dow Chemical, who oversaw a fundamental reorganisation of PlasticsEurope.

On 17 June 2020 the Society of Plastics Engineers SPE has announced recently elected Executive Board members as well as a newly appointed President.

European Bioplastics, the association, representing the bioplastics industry in Europe, has announced the appointment of Joanna Dupont-Inglis as Head of European Public Affairs. She assumed her position on 1 June 2020 and will be based in Brussels.

With great sadness, the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP) has announced that James McGraw, former Managing Director and CEO of the IISRP, passed away on 8 June 2020 in Houston, Texas.

Borealis has appointed Erik van Praet as Vice President Innovation & Technology effective 1 April 2020. Erik van Praet succeeds Maurits van Tol, who decided to pursue his career outside of Borealis in October 2019.

Dr. Tammo Boinowitz (53) will become managing director of BYK-Chemie GmbH based in Wesel as of 1 January 2021. After a two-month training and transitional phase, he will also become the President of BYK, the largest division of the specialty chemicals group Altana. He succeeds Dr. Christoph Schlünken, who has headed the division on an interim basis since October of last year in parallel with his responsibilities on Altana’s Management Board.