Joel McDonald: What Dow Chemical Co. looks for in MS&E hires and how they approach sustainability

Steve and Tim talk with Dr. Joel McDonald, the Technical Director for Mobility products at Dow Chemical company. Joel was Steve's PhD student and an Applied Physics graduate at U. Michigan. He talks about how he first worked at Sandia National Labs before transitioning to Dow Corning, and later Dow. He explains how he was able to perform well in a chemical company even though his background was in optics. He has leveraged his Applied Physics and Materials skills learned in grad school to rise to a very high level at Dow and bring the right products to customers and help Dow make money. He talks at length about some of the very successful recycling efforts at Dow, specifically about how Dow has found a way to recover critical chemical components from polyurethane products in automobiles. Using their separation and chemical techniques they are able to create products from recycled vehicles that make mattresses or even seats for brand new luxury cars.

The YouTube video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/sHoE_wJ54-k

Our YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/@Undercooled.Materials

This episode is sponsored by the TMS Foundation and the University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering department (https://mse.engin.umich.edu).