Georg Menges
University of Aachen
Inducted 2006
Professor Ing. Georg Menges (1923 – 2008) had a long career as managing director of the renowned Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung (IKV) at the University of Aachen in Germany. Menges grew this small technical training operation into a powerhouse of plastics processing education and research. Many plastics processing and plastics machinery technologies were developed at the IKV under his direction.
He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, receiving his doctorate in 1955. Following a decade-long career in the plastics industry, he joined the IKV as Director. The IKV soon became one of the leading research institutes in Europe and the largest institute dedicated to plastics research and development. The institute employs many scientists, engineers, and technical researchers. The Aaken program has graduated many hundreds of plastics engineers over the years and continues to do so. Using their education model, research and development work for more than 300 industrial sponsors is carried out in teams of both students and scientists and provides financial stability for the education program.
Menges has directed research from the structure-property relationship for plastics to advanced plastics processing techniques. He has developed computer-aided applications for injection molding and other plastics and rubber processes. He is the author of hundreds of publications, including numerous plastics textbooks on subjects that range from mold design to plastics recycling. Virtually every aspect of plastics processing has been undertaken by the formidable institution he directed. Prof. Menges and his group have influenced many German and international plastics company leaders.
Menges is the recipient of many awards, including the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Award in Plastics Science and Engineering in 1983, the Award of the Plastics Processing Technical Association (Japan) in 1984, and the Hermann F. Mark medal in 1985 from the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic processing, Plastics Machinery