Ica Manas-Zloczower
Thomas W. and Nancy P. Seitz Professor of Advanced Materials and Energy, Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Case School of Engineering
Professor of chemical and biomedical engineering
Area of Focus: sustainability, materials innovation, macromolecular science and engineering
Millions of tons of thermosets—hard plastics—are produced each year and used to manufacture everything from kitchenware to aircraft panels. Their strength, insulative qualities, and heat and chemical resistance make these materials ideal for a wide range of applications.
Over time, however, they degrade into microplastics—tiny plastic particles that pollute the environment, harm wildlife, and may pose risks to human health by carrying toxic chemicals and entering the food chain.
Additionally, the same properties that make thermosets desirable also make them impossible to recycle by traditional methods.
Ica Manas-Zloczower is working to change that.
As the inaugural recipient of the Thomas W. and Nancy P. Seitz Professorship of Advanced Materials and Energy, established at Case Western Reserve University in 2012, Manas-Zloczower has made significant advances in macromolecular science and engineering. Most recently, she and a team of researchers developed “vitrimerization,” a process that manipulates thermosets at a molecular level to enable reprocessing and recycling.
Now, her research has inspired support that will make it easier for others at CWRU to kickstart similarly innovative work.
A recent commitment of $1 million from Tom (CIT ’70) and Nancy Seitz will establish a pool of immediate-use research funding for polymer processing and advanced materials development at the university’s Case School of Engineering.
The Seitzes are decadeslong supporters of CWRU, but it was Manas-Zloczower’s sustainability research that spurred their latest gift.
“Sometimes you have really promising technology that gets stuck because it’s not yet commercial enough to attract industry funding or exciting enough from an academic point of view to attract institutional funding,” Tom Seitz said, citing Manas-Zloczower’s research as a prime example. “We saw an opportunity to bridge that gap.”
Tom and Nancy previously committed $1 million to the university’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, and hope the combination of state-of-the-art facilities and seed funding will spark new ideas and opportunities to address some of society’s most pressing challenges.
“I am very grateful to the Seitz family,” said Manas-Zloczower. “Their gift will provide critical support for advancing the formulations, processing approaches and talent pipeline to make a meaningful impact in this field of research.”