IISRP to Honor Kraton Polymer’s Vonk and Bayer’s Kleinheidt

Houston, Texas, USA, 1 November 2001 - A scientist from The Netherlands and a business executive from Germany have been named 2002 recipients of the two highest awards granted by the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers.

William Cornelis Vonk, Research & Technical Support Department Manager at Kraton Polymers, will receive the Institute’s Technical Award. Ernst August Kleinheidt, retired General Manager Business Group Leader of Bayer AG, will receive the General Award. Both will receive their awards at the IISRP’s 43rd Annual General Meeting in Naples, Italy, the week of 12 May 2002.

Mr. Vonk is being honored for his research and development and application of Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBCs) as bitumen modifiers. He has made significant contributions to the improvement of storage stability that are of particular relevance to the use of SBCs in road surface applications. He has more than 10 patents and co-patents and has published extensively on road surface applications with thermoplastic elastomers.

Dr. Kleinheidt is being honored for his many contributions to the synthetic rubber industry in, most importantly to the IISRP. Prior to his retirement in 1996, Dr. Kleinheidt had been employed by Bayer AG for 32 years.

After graduating from the University Muenster Facility of Natural Sciences in 1963, he spent a year with Shell AG and then joined Bayer AG in their Central Research Laboratory in Leverkusen. After spending more than two decades in various capacities, including an assignment in Brazil, he was appointed to General Manager Business Group Rubber in 1989 and held that position until his retirement.

It was during this period that he served as IISRP Director Representative from Bayer AG. His contributions towards the IISRP include serving as Treasurer from 1995 to 1996 while simultaneously contributing as an Executive Committee member. He also was a significant contributor to the IISRP during its mid-1990’s re-engineering effort, which led to the restructuring of the Institute. It is for his IISRP contributions and his leadership at Bayer AG that he is being honored with the General Award.

The IISRP is an international not-for-profit trade association with 49 corporate members domiciled in 21 countries who produce 90-percent of the world’s supply of synthetic rubber. Incorporated in 1960 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, the Institute supports section offices in London and Tokyo.