People

Academia

Royce Engstrom, a professor of chemistry at the University of Montana, became the university’s 17th president on Oct. 15. He had served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at the university since 2007. Previously, he was a chemistry professor at the University of South Dakota for 28 years. At Montana, Engstrom replaced George M. Dennison, the university’s longest-serving president, who led his alma mater for two decades.

Associations

Jody A. Roberts has been named associate director of the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Center for Contemporary History & Policy (CCHP). In this role, he will develop a strategic vision for CCHP and will continue to build the Environmental History & Policy Program, which he has managed within CCHP since 2007.

Industry

Doug Barr has become resource manager of the synthesis function within Lubrizol’s Noveon Consumer Specialties group. Krishnan Chari has joined the group as research manager of polymer physics. Previously, he worked at Rohm and Haas. Brian Figura has also joined the group as a research chemist. Nancy Marchant has moved into the role of strategic technology manager for Noveon Consumer Specialties after ser ving as research manager of its synthesis group. Mark Paczkowski has joined the Noveon Consumer Specialties group as a technology manager. He had been a research fellow at Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients. Ashoke SenGupta has been named senior research chemist in Noveon Consumer Specialties’ skin care applications group. Before joining Lubrizol, SenGupta worked at Amcol International.

Ahmet Baydar has been appointed to the newly created role of senior vice president for R&D at International Flavors & Fragrances. For the past two years, Baydar has served as the company’s vice president for global fragrance research.

Iver J. Berry has returned to Austin Chemical to serve as its president from his office in Freehold, N.J. Berry previously served Austin for more than 25 years as vice president of sales and marketing before leaving in 2007 to gain experience in the manufacturing of intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Austin Chemical is a North American provider of services and products to the life sciences and specialty fine chemicals industries.

Scott Biller has become the chief scientific officer for Agios Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the field of cancer metabolism. He joins Agios from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where he was vice president and head of global discovery chemistry at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Paul Bloom has been named business director for Archer Daniels Midland’s Industrial Chemicals group. Most recently, he served as director of chemical technology strategy at the company. The Industrial Chemicals group produces polymers, solvents, and starches for industrial and consumer applications as well as biobased industrial ingredients such as isosorbide, glycerin, and industrial ethanol.

Christopher Bond has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing for Para-Chem’s adhesives business unit. Most recently, he was a commercial director with Pergan Marshall. Mike Manegold has been named Para-Chem’s new business development manager. He had been a senior product manager for new business development with Henkel’s Loctite Industrial Division. Raul Alcala has been named plant manager for Para-Chem’s Mansfield, Texas, adhesives facility. Based in Simpsonville, S.C., Para-Chem is a manufacturer of acrylic-based polymers, coatings, modifiers, and flooring adhesives.

Lykele van der Broek has assumed the newly established position of chief operating officer of Bayer CropScience. In this role, he will help promote closer cooperation between the company’s crop protection and seeds and traits operations on a regional level for the benefit of its customers. Van der Broek had been head of the Animal Health division at Bayer HealthCare. Rüdiger Scheitza will head Bayer CropScience’s strategy and business management functions. He had been in charge of Bayer CropScience’s portfolio management activities.

John Buckley has been named global general manager of Dow Chemical’s Performance Materials business unit and president and CEO of Dow subsidiary Angus Chemical. He joined Dow when it acquired Rohm and Haas in 2009. Most recently, he served as president of Dow subsidiary AgroFresh.

Mark Cassidy has been appointed vice president of contract manufacturing services for SAFC, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich. Coming from an 18-year career at Dow Chemical, Cassidy joined SAFC in January 2009 as director of global sales and marketing. He is based at SAFC’s Cambridge, England, facility.

William DeMaio has joined Ricerca Biosciences as senior director of its Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics department. Prior to joining Ricerca, DeMaio was associate director of biotransformation at Wyeth Research (now Pfizer) in Collegeville, Pa. Based in Concord, Ohio, Ricerca is a preclinical contract research organization providing services to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Karin Dorrepaal has joined DSM as senior vice president in the Corporate Strategy & Acquisitions department. At the end of 2011, she will succeed Hein Schreuder, who is currently executive vice president of corporate strategy and acquisitions. Previously, Dorrepaal was on the executive board of Schering AG in Berlin, overseeing its diagnostic imaging business and its global supply chain and procurement.

Dana L. Durham has been named vice president for technology and innovation at Syrgis, a Cincinnati-based international diversified group of fine and specialty chemical manufacturers. Previously, Durham served as a director of research at Air Products & Chemicals.

Sucheta Govil has been appointed the new global head of marketing for AkzoNobel’s decorative paints business, effective on Jan. 1, 2011. She joins AkzoNobel from PepsiCo., where she was vice president of innovations and new business for the company’s Asia, Middle East, and Africa division. Govil will be based in Slough, in the U.K.

Robert Harrer has been appointed executive vice president, chief financial officer, and chief administrative officer at Mallinckrodt Baker. He will oversee all aspects of Mallinckrodt Baker’s global financial operations as well as the company’s information technology, human resources, legal department, and other global shared services. Previously, Harrer was a business adviser to New Mountain Capital, which acquired Mallinckrodt Baker in August of this year.

Glenn Killingworth has been appointed director of business development at CiVentiChem. He will be involved in developing new business opportunities to support the launch of the company’s new pilot and production facilities in Hyderabad, India, and R&D and new kilo-lab synthesis capabilities in Cary, N.C. Most recently, Killingworth was director of key accounts at WuXi AppTec. With headquarters in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, CiVentiChem provides pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and agrochemical companies with contract research, custom synthesis, process development, and contract manufacturing services.

Arlene S. Kobos has been promoted from national sales director to vice president of sales at Symrise. Gretchen Doyle has joined the company as a national account manager after serving as a national account manager at Kraft Food Ingredients. Ian Björn Thurston has been named marketing communication manager for the company. Previously, he was a senior marketing manager at the Institute for International Research. Frank Rapacki has been promoted from a senior manager to director of consumer insights. Symrise has hired Harris Levinson as a senior food technologist within its Sweet Business unit and Sherrilyn Tross-Hall as a food technologist. Most recently, Tross-Hall was a food technologist at Robertet Flavors. Ron Spaziani has been named a product development chef at the company. He had been a research chef and food technologist at Kerry Ingredients & Flavor.

Torsten Kraef has become the new business group vice president of Dow Polyurethanes. Most recently, he served as business group vice president of Dow Building & Construction, a business group within Dow’s Advanced Materials division. He succeeds Guillermo Novo, who has been named business group vice president of Dow Coating Materials.

Glenn Krasley has been appointed sales and marketing director at Ultrachem, a specialty lubricant compounder and supplier. Most recently, Krasley was vice president of product development at Advanced Lubrication Specialties in Bensalem, Pa.

Sef Kurstjens has been appointed the CEO and president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Agensys. He had been senior vice president, chief medical officer, and head of global drug development at Allergan. Kurstjens will replace Donald B. Rice, Agensys’ founder, who is retiring. Agensys, an affiliate of Astellas Pharma, is developing a pipeline of therapeutic, fully human monoclonal antibodies to treat solid-tumor cancers.

Jay Lang has been promoted to executive vice president of Charkit Chemical. Lang, who had been vice president, will be responsible for growth of the company and will focus on acquisitions that will enhance Charkit’s capabilities to serve the personal care industry.

David C. Lathbury has joined Albany Molecular Research Inc. as vice president of chemical development, assuming leadership for the company’s operations in Albany, Rensselaer, and Syracuse, N.Y. He will also be responsible for coordination of global projects spanning all AMRI chemical development operations, including the company’s sites in Wales and in Hyderabad, India. Most recently, he served as director of process chemistry for AstraZeneca Process Research & Development.

Timothy P. McCann has been appointed president of DuPont Building Innovations. He was formerly vice president of DuPont Performance Coatings, Americas.

Michael J. McManus has been selected as president and CEO of Integromics, which provides information technology services within the fields of genomics and proteomics. He will lead the company’s efforts to expand in the world market. Prior to joining Integromics, McManus led GenomeQuest’s corporate marketing, strategic alliances, product marketing, and product development efforts. Integromics was founded in 2002 and is based in Granada, Spain.

Carol L. Miller has joined Midland Tomorrow as its economic development manager and senior chemical industry manager. Previously, Miller had worked in various Dow Chemical business units for almost 25 years, developing expertise in global business management and strategy development, asset optimization, and strategic negotiation. Midland Tomorrow is a private, nonprofit, economic development corporation serving Midland County, Mich.

Richard C. Olson, currently president of DuPont Titanium Technologies, will lead DuPont’s productivity improvement and business process simplification programs across the company. Boo C. Chong—currently vice president of DuPont’s Performance Coatings, Asia Pacific—will succeed Olson as president of Titanium Technologies. Chong will lead the global business from Asia, the world’s largest and fastest growing market for titanium dioxide. Both Olson and Chong will assume their new positions on Jan. 1, 2011.

Jeffrey L. Keefer, DuPont’s executive vice president, has elected to retire after more than 34 years of service with the company, effective on Dec. 31. Keefer’s current responsibilities include overall cost and working capital productivity programs, corporate strategy, and the DuPont Performance Coatings business. The corporate strategy function will report to Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Nicholas C. Fanandakis and DuPont Performance Coatings will report to Executive Vice President Thomas M. Connelly.

Anton Robek will be appointed senior vice president of DSM Bio-based Products & Services (formerly DSM White Biotechnology) effective Jan. 1, 2011. He has been president and CEO of DSM Melamine. In addition, Volkert Claassen has been appointed vice president of strategy and growth of the DSM Innovation Center and vice president of strategy and partnerships of DSM Bio-based Products & Services. He has been vice president of DSM White Biotechnology.

William Rothwell has joined Codexis as its vice president and general manager for biobased chemicals. Most recently, he served as vice president of Innovation & Chemicals Technology for Shell Global Solutions, in Houston. He retired from Shell late last year after a 29-year career there. A cleantech company, Codexis develops optimized biocatalysts that make industrial processes faster, cleaner, and more efficient.

Hans-Georg Schmitt, head of the Basic Chemicals unit at specialty chemical company Lanxess, will retire on Jan. 1, 2011. Hubert Fink, head of Lanxess’ Semi-Crystalline Products unit, will succeed Schmitt. Michael Zobel is succeeding Fink. Zobel has been head of Lanxess’ Ion Exchange Resins unit, a position that will be taken over by Jean-Marc Vesselle. Vesselle is currently responsible for the global product management and strategic development of the company’s Ion Exchange Resins unit.

James Stephenson has been promoted to the position of global marketing manager for Dow Corning’s health care business. Most recently, he was team leader in the company’s business and technology incubator.

Thierry Vanlancker has been named vice president of DuPont Performance Coatings, Europe-Middle East-Africa. He had been global business and market director for DuPont Fluorochemicals.

Oliver Yeh has been appointed general manager for the Asia-Pacific region at NanoInk. In addition, Robert Marchmont has been named general manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at the company. They will manage sales in their respective regions for NanoInk’s NanoFabrication Systems division, which provides core desktop instrumentation and application expertise for current and future applications of Dip Pen Nanolithography. Yeh was vice president and general manager at Veeco Instruments in Taiwan. Marchmont was CEO at TotalLab in the U.K.

Joel Zazyczny has been promoted to vice president for silanes, silicones, and metal organics at Morrisville, Pa.-based Gelest. In this position, he will be responsible for managing all business operations, including global distribution, product management, strategic development, customer service, technical service, and marketing. He had been Gelest’s business manager for silanes and metal organics.

Institutes

Chad A. Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences and a leader in nanotechnology research and its application, has been elected a member of the Institute of Medicine. Mirkin was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2009, making him the 10th person in the world to be elected to all three branches of the National Academies. He is also a professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials science and engineering and director of Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology.

Societies

Martha Fedor, a Scripps Research Institute associate professor, has been named the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), effective on Jan. 1, 2011. She will succeed the journal’s longtime editor, Herbert Tabor, a distinguished researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who has steered the journal for the past four decades. Serving for a five-year term, Fedor will be the first female leader in the journal’s 106-year history. Since 2006, she has served as an associate editor for JBC, which is published by the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. She is also a member of the Scripps Research Institute’s departments of chemical physiology and molecular biology and of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.

Richard N. Zare, chemistry department chair at Stanford University, has been elected an honorary fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society. The highest honor the society can bestow on an individual, the honorary fellow title is conferred on eminent chemists who have made significant contributions to the advancement of chemistry.