Goodyear Researcher Receives DuPont Award

Goodyear Tire & Rubber researcher Kevin Westgate is to receive a DuPont award recognising the commercialisation of one of the company’s most important technologies. The lead engineer in Goodyear’s Global Material Science Group is one of four people awarded DuPont’s 2009 Bolton/Carothers Innovative Science Award. This distinction acknowledges the work that Westgate and three colleagues employed by DuPont have contributed towards introducing hybrid cord technology containing DuPont’s Kevlar into numerous tyre products.

Westgate and the three DuPont men – Florencio Gopez of DuPont Protection Technologies R&D, and Mark Lamontia and Ted Diehl of DuPont Engineering Technologies – worked collaboratively over a period of five years to develop and bring to market the new technology that has delivered substantial commercial success for both Goodyear and DuPont. Their efforts will be acknowledged at a presentation ceremony on January 19, 2010.

The Bolton/Carothers Innovative Science Award recognises creative scientific invention or discovery that results in the creation of recently commercialised new products, technology, or business that is generating significant revenue with the potential for continued earnings. Goodyear notes with pride that this 2009 award marks the first occasion that anyone outside of DuPont has been a recipient.