Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. – The Pressure Sensitive Tape Council (PSTC) named Melinda Einsla, research scientist within the Dow Adhesives business of The Dow Chemical Company, as the recipient of its coveted 2018 Carl Dahlquist Award. The award is named for innovator Carl Dahlquist, who developed the Dahlquist criterion of tack, which determines if the modulus value of a material is low enough to be considered a pressure sensitive adhesive.

PSTC presents the Dahlquist Award to one speaker during its annual technical conference who, following the evaluation of a panel of judges, demonstrates the very best in research relating to adhesive tape technology. The selection covers a range of criteria, concentrating on originality and scientific contribution, but also includes presentation and quality of visuals.

Einsla presented Multilayer Adhesives-Tuning Properties using Bulk and Interfacial Contributions at the PSTC TECH 41 seminar, which took place May 9-11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Einsla joined Dow in 2008, and since then has worked in the areas of Plastics Additives, Photovoltaic Encapsulants, Paper Coatings, Pressure Sensitive Adhesives, and Architectural Coatings. She has primarily been responsible for the development of novel polymer compositions and architectures by emulsion polymerization.

Einsla holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Bloomsburg University and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining Dow, Einsla completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she studied inorganic and polymeric proton conductors for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Einsla’s winning paper is published online at pstc.org/Einsla.