Prof. Gardner’s Ph.D. Student Alper Kiziltas receives award for his research on creating new heat-resistant automotive plastics.
Ph.D. student Alper Kiziltas attended SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) in September 11-13, 2012 to give two talk and present a poster. His work for the automobile industry got lots of interest from industrial people and academia. Before the conference, he submitted his research proposal (Under the Foot to Under the Hood = Cellulose Filled Recycled Carpet for Under the hood Applications For Automobile Industry) for 2012-2013 SPE ACCE graduate Scholarship Awards. The awards committee select students whose composites intensive projects have the greatest potential impact on ground transportation. This is the first time, student from University of Maine got this award.
He also got the best poster award in the conference. The title of his poster was Microcrystalline Cellulose Fiber- Filled Engineering Thermoplastic Composites for Automotive Applications. This is very unusual to get two important awards in one meeting.
For more information about the award please go to:
Bangor Daily News also featured research by Alper Kiziltas, who is creating new heat-resistant automotive plastics from natural materials like wood flour, hemp and flax instead of glass and carbon fibers. Kiziltas said his recent research has established that natural fillers can stand the stress of high temperatures and are low-cost, low-density, strong, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable.
Please click the following for the BDN story: