Richard Spontak

Distinguished Professor

Dr. Richard J. Spontak is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and Alumni Distinguished Graduate and Undergraduate Professor at North Carolina State University.

He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors/high distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983 and was later awarded the Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research in Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) and Condensed Matter Physics at the Institute for Energy Technology (Norway) before joining the Corporate Research Division of The Procter & Gamble Company in 1990.

In 1992, he accepted a faculty position at North Carolina State University, where he supervises the Macromolecular Materials & Morphology Group. Since that time, Spontak has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 35 scholarly works as book chapters and invited monographs, and his work has been featured on 31 journal covers and cited over 14,000 times according to Google Scholar (as of November 2021). Although active in a diverse range of disciplines, his primary research interests relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, polymer nanocomposites and coatings, electron microscopy, and stimuli-responsive soft materials.

In recognition of his fundamental and applied research endeavors, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards such as the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Achievement and Distinguished Engineering Research Awards, Alexander von Humboldt and Tewkesbury fellowships, the North Carolina State University Alumni Outstanding Research and Global Engagement Awards, the 2006 American Chemical Society (PMSE Division) Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science & Engineering, the 2007 German Society for Electron Microscopy Ernst Ruska Prize, the 2008 American Chemical Society (Rubber Division) Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award, the 2011 Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining (IOM3) Colwyn Medal, the 2012 Norwegian University of Science & Technology Lars Onsager Medal, the 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers International Award, the 2021 Tau Beta Pi Distinguished Alumni Award, and the 2021 International Association of Advanced Materials Researcher of the Year Award.

An elected fellow of the American Physical Society, IOM3, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, he is or has been on the editorial advisory board of more than 20 international journals and holds editorial positions on three of them. He has been recognized as a 2007 Outstanding Scholar Alumnus and a 2012 Alumni Fellow by the Pennsylvania State University, and he is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the North Carolina State University Research Leadership, Global Engagement and Outstanding Teaching Academies.

Spontak is also a highly acclaimed educator and academic mentor. For his instructional effectiveness employing cooperative and active learning pedagogies in the classroom and his widespread efforts to promote interdisciplinary engineering design and undergraduate research, he has received college- and alumni-level Outstanding Teaching Awards, as well as the university-level Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest institutional honor bestowed by the University of North Carolina system. He has also received the 2006 International Network for Engineering Education & Research Recognition Award and the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Region Outstanding Mid-Career Teaching Award, and he has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist and an Erasmus Fellow.

Spontak resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife Josie and has two children, Danielle and Joshua.

Publications

Carbon molecular-sieve membranes developed from a Troger's base polymer and possessing superior gas-separation performance
Dai, Z., Guo, H., Deng, J., Deng, L., Yan, J., & Spontak, R. J. (2023), JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, 680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2023.121731
Characterization of Controlled-Distribution Hydrogenated Styrenic Block Copolymers by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Yang, J., Germack, D. S., & Spontak, R. J. (2023, July 21), ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS, Vol. 7. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.3c00698
Fundamentals of and advances in nanocellulose and nanochitin systems
Jin, S.-A., & Spontak, R. J. (2023), ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING POLYMER RESEARCH, 6(4), 356–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aiepr.2023.04.003
High-performance carbon-capture membranes developed by (non)solvent-induced nanostructural rearrangement in Nafion
Wei, J., Deng, J., Ma, Y., Qin, Z., Wang, B., Deng, L., … Dai, Z. (2023, August 15), JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, Vol. 8. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ta03279e
Preventing the spread of life-threatening gastrointestinal microbes on the surface of a continuously self-disinfecting block polymer
Wells, K. M., Ciftci, Y., Peddinti, B. S. T., Ghiladi, R. A., Vediyappan, G., Spontak, R. J., & Govind, R. (2023), JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE, 652, 718–726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.088
Surface Mechanical Properties and Topological Characteristics of Thermoplastic Copolyesters after Precisely Controlled Abrasion
Terán, J. E., Pal, L., Spontak, R. J., & Lucia, L. (2023), ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(5), 7552–7561. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c19377
Tunable thermoplastic elastomer gels derived from controlled-distribution triblock copolymers with crystallizable endblocks
Hames, N. T., Balsbough, D., Yan, J., Wu, S., Zuo, X., & Spontak, R. J. (2023, August 25), MATERIALS HORIZONS, Vol. 8. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3mh01018
Tunable thermoplastic elastomer gels derived from controlled-distribution triblock copolymers with crystallizable endblocks
Hames, N. T., Balsbough, D., Yan, J., Wu, S., Zuo, X., & Spontak, R. J. (2023), MATERIALS HORIZONS, 10(11), 4968–4975. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3mh01018j
An integrated materials approach to ultrapermeable and ultraselective CO2 polymer membranes
Sandru, M., Sandru, E. M., Ingram, W. F., Deng, J., Stenstad, P. M., Deng, L., & Spontak, R. J. (2022), SCIENCE, 376(6588), 90-+. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj9351
Anion-Specific Water Interactions with Nanochitin: Donnan and Osmotic Pressure Effects as Revealed by Quartz Microgravimetry
Jin, S.-A., Khan, S. A., Spontak, R. J., & Rojas, O. J. (2021), LANGMUIR, 37(38), 11242–11250. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01585

View all publications via NC State Libraries

Richard Spontak