Sept. 2, 2010

(MIDLAND, MICH.) - In its illustrious history, Michigan Molecular Institute has seen some of the world’s foremost experts in polymer chemistry pass through its doors, but only two had been honored with the title of Distinguished Research Fellow - until Aug. 18. That’s when Dr. Petar Dvornic joined that elite group.

Dvornic, 62, joined Dr. Dale Meier and Dr. Raymond Boyer as the only polymer scientists at MMI to elevate to the position of Distinguished Research Fellow. Dvornic’s new station at MMI was celebrated with a party with colleagues.

“This is a distinction that is granted to a select few individuals who are recognized as global experts in their field,” said Dr. James Plonka, MMI’s President and CEO. “Most organizations will have no one at this level, perhaps for extended periods of time; at most, there are only a handful of such experts in a particular field in the world, and Petar’s body of work certainly qualifies him as one such individual.”

Dvornic, who joined MMI in 1993, was moved by the celebration and quick to recognize the role of his colleagues.

“I am really delighted and very honored, particularly to join such giants as Ray Boyer and Dale Meier,” Dvornic said. “To me, MMI is a home away from home, and I know that this honor would have never happened if not for all of MMI’s extremely talented researchers and scientists that I have had a privilege to work with. MMI is truly an outstanding organization of which both Midland and the state of Michigan should be very proud.”

Dvornic’s new title at MMI isn’t even his most current career honor. He will serve as an invited plenary speaker at the XI Andrianov Silicone conference in Moscow, Russia, at the end of September.

“It is a huge honor for every silicone chemist to be invited to speak at the Andrianov symposium in Moscow,” he said. “Kuz’ma Andrianovich was the father of Russian organosilicon chemistry. His monumental work puts him right up there with the giants of silicone science, such as Frederick Kipping in England, Eugene Rochow at GE and our own Frank Hyde at Dow Corning. I am really looking forward to this.”

Among Dvornic’s research highlights and collaborations are the discovery of hydrosilylation polymerization which at that time (early 1990s) was only the second known addition polymerization reaction (after polyurethanes) capable of producing high molecular weight polymers; the development of asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes from wholly aromatic poly(amide-hydrazides); and the design and development of poly(amidoamine-organosilicon) or PAMAMOS - dendrimers, which later became the first commercially available silicon-containing and radially layered copolymeric dendrimers. He was also one of the principal inventors of the MMI’s bimolecular nonlinear polymerization (BMNLP) method for the preparation of hyperbranched polymers and has authored and/or edited three books, nearly 100 papers and 17 patents.

Dvornic has taught and/or lectured at such distiguished locations as Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York; MIT, University of Massachsetts, Amherst; University of California, Berkely; and the respective Departments of Chemistry at Central Michigan University and Michigan Technological University. He was also recently named chair of the External Science Advisory Board for CMU’s new Science of Advanced Materials Ph.D. program.