Pak-Wing Steve Chum
Dow Chemical Company
Inducted 2006
Dr. Pak-Wing (Steve) Chum has had a long and distinguished career with the Dow Chemical Company, culminating with being named Chief Scientist of Dow Performance Plastics and Chemicals Division. He has become a world-recognized expert in the material science of semi-crystalline polymers and polyolefins.
Dr. Chum grew up in Macau and received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Hong Kong Baptist College. He then completed graduate studies in Chemistry at Northern Michigan University and earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oregon State University. He did his post-doctoral Research at Kent State University before joining Dow.
The Dow Fellow may be best known for his work as a key inventor of Insite metallocene-based polyolefin technology, resulting in the development of several new commercially successful polyolefin materials used in food and specialty packaging, automotive products, and other durable good applications. The development of Insite was so significant that it received the 2002 U.S. National Technology medal. Early work in polymers focused on the development of plastic foams. He also co-led another product development effort at Dow, successfully launching new polypropylene-based plastomers and elastomers for packaging and durable markets that provide excellent clarity, gloss, elasticity, flexibility, softness, and compatibility.
Chum, considered a world-class material scientist, is one of the first scientists in the polyolefin industry to combine polymer materials science models for the crystallization of semi-crystalline polyolefins, rheology models, and structure/property models to speed the development of new polymeric materials. Dr. Chum holds 55 U.S. patents as well as numerous international patents. He has authored or co-authored over 60 journal articles and has contributed chapters to several textbooks.
Dr. Chum is the recipient of numerous industry and professional society awards. He received the ACS Industry/Academia Cooperative Research Award, jointly with Professor Anne Hiltner of Case Western Reserve University in 2001. He has also received The H.H. Dow Medal, the highest honor bestowed to the most senior scientists at The Dow Chemical Company. Dr. Chum is a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and received the Outstanding Achievement Award from SPE’s Thermoplastic Materials and Foam Division in 2006. He received the U.S. National Inventor of the Year Award and the ACS Outstanding Achievement Award earlier in his career.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic materials