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Instructors

Seminars are taught by world-renowned faculty and industry leaders

Dr. Carol Forance Barry is a Professor of Plastics Engineering. After 12 years in industry, she returned to school to earn a D.Eng. Plastics Engineering. She then joined the Plastics Engineering faculty. Her research focus is plastics processing, including extrusion, injection molding, and novel processing techniques. Recent work has focused on including compounding and forming of polymer and rubber nanocomposites, coextrusion of multilayer films, injection molding and embossing of micro and nanostructured surfaces, evaluation of novelty melt compounding equipment, and processing of biodegradable polymers. She has over 300 publications.
Teaches: Extrusion
Dr. Stephen Johnston came to UMass Lowell in 2003 to pursue his M.S. degree and subsequently his Ph.D. in Plastics Engineering. His expertise is in the area of instrumentation, analysis, and simulation of the injection molding process. Dr. Johnston has worked at Lord Corp., Moldflow Corp., Bausch & Lomb Inc., and does research and consulting for numerous other companies. In the fall of 2007, he started teaching courses at UMass Lowell. His course offerings focus on mold design, product design and processing.
Teaches: Injection Molding | Plastic Part Design for Injection Molding June 1-4 | Plastic Part Design for Injection Molding July 7-10
Dr. Akshay Kokil is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Plastics Engineering Department at University of Massachusetts Lowell. He received a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, and a Bachelors in Polymer Engineering from University of Poona, India. Prior to his academic appointment he worked in the industry and was a post-doctoral fellow at Virginia Tech and University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has extensive experience in Polymer Materials and Characterization. He currently teaches courses and laboratory classes in Polymer Materials, Polymer Synthesis, Additives, and Characterization of Plastics.
Teaches: Plastics Materials, June 15-18 | Plastics Materials, August 24-27
Suhas Kulkarni is the president of FimmTech Inc., a firm that specializes in services and training related to Plastic Injection Molding. Suhas earned his Masters in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and a Bachelors in Polymer Engineering from the University of Poona, India. He has been involved with the injection molding industry since 1993 with the main focus on processing. He is the author of the top selling book 'Robust Process Development and Scientific Molding' published by Hanser Publications, now in its third edition. He is also the author of several papers and articles.
Teaches: Robust Process Development and Scientific Molding
Dr. Davide Masato received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2011), an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2014) and a Ph.D. (2018) from the University of Padova in Italy. In 2016, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Bradford (UK), where he worked at the Centre for Polymer Micro and Nano Technology (Polymer MNT). Prior to joining the faculty at UMass Lowell, he was a post-doc researcher at the University of Padova, where he worked at the Te.Si. Laboratory for Precision Engineering and Manufacturing. Beginning in 2015, he was a teaching assistant at the University of Padova for courses pertaining to engineering of plastics processes and injection molding process simulation.
Teaches: Precision and Micro Injection Molding
Dr. Joey L. Mead received her S.B. in chemistry from MIT (1981) and her Ph.D. in Polymers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering from MIT (1986). She worked for over 10 years as a Materials Engineer for the Army Research Laboratory in Watertown, MA. She is a Distinguished University Professor, David and Frances Pernick Nanotechnology Professor in the Department of Plastics Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is also the Director of the NSF I/UCRC SHAP3D and Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing of Polymers and Soft Materials (AMPS) at UMass Lowell. She was previously the Deputy Director of the NSF Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing. She received the George Stafford Whitby Award for Distinguished Teaching & Research in 2018 from the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society and became a NextFlex Fellow in 2021. Her research interests include nanomanufacturing and nanoscale patterning of polymeric materials, structure-properties of polymers, elastomers, and thermoplastic elastomers. She has over 200 publications and 10 book chapters.
Teaches: Thermoplastic Elastomers
Dr. Amy Peterson is a Professor of Plastics Engineering at University of Massachusetts Lowell with expertise in interfacial phenomena and additive manufacturing (AM). Her research group studies processing-structure-property relationships in polymers and polymer composites, with a focus on interfacial phenomena in multilayered systems. She received her PhD in 2011 from Drexel University, where she was an NSF IGERT and Graduate Research Fellow. She was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow while at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces 2011-2013 and was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2013-2018.
Teaches: Plastics in Medical Devices
Dr. Meg Sobkowicz Kline is a professor of Plastics Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She completed her bachelors of science in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in New York. She worked as a field engineer in the petroleum industry and in the municipal water treatment industry before returning to school to complete her doctorate in renewable polymer nanocomposites. Following her graduate studies, Meg accepted a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at National Institute of Standards and Technology to research polymeric materials for photovoltaic applications. Dr. Sobkowicz Kline joined the UMass Lowell Plastics Engineering Department in 2011.
Teaches: Plastics in Medical Devices | Twin-Screw Extrusion and Compounding
Dr. Anne Soucy is an Assistant Teaching Professor and the Associate Chair for the Plastics Engineering undergraduate degree program at UMass Lowell, where she earned a bachelor's degree and a doctoral degree in Plastics Engineering. Prior to joining the UMass Lowell faculty, she was a faculty member in the departments of Plastics & Polymer Engineering Technology and Engineering Design Technology at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Courses she has taught include blow molding, rotational molding, product and mold design for injection molding, Moldflow®, 2D CAD applications, print reading, and 3D parametric solid modeling. She has also taught injection molding and product design for injection molding industrial seminars.
Teaches: Extrusion
Steve Thibeault is the President of Poly-Ject Inc., a small custom injection molder and mold maker located in Amherst, NH. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has designed and built over 200 injection molds for products ranging from tight tolerance military connectors to sporting goods, medical devices and everything in between. He also does all of the part designs at Poly-Ject for a wide range of customers and applications.
Teaches: Injection Mold Design
Dr. Jinde Zhang received his S.B. in applied chemistry from Xidian University (2007), M.S. in polymer chemistry and physics from University of Science and Technology of China (2011) and his Ph.D. in Plastics Engineering from University of Massachusetts Lowell (2016). He is currently Assistant Research Professor in Plastics Engineering Department at UMass Lowell. His research interests include
  • Study of bio-inspired surfaces with special wetting behavior including superhydrophobicity, superomnipobicity, superhydrophilicity, etc.
  • Fabrication of polymeric film with functional surface properties via roll-to-roll processing
  • Polymer nanocomposites fabrication, such as CNTs/polyolefin, carbon blacks/polyolefin, metal power/polyolefin, graphite/polyolefin, etc.
  • Textile-based flexible electronicsbio-inspired surface science and engineering He has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Teaches: Thermoplastic Elastomers