PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Tanisha Francis, 2024 PlastChicks Scholarship Winner, Computer Engineering Senior at Kettering University, and President of the Kettering University SPE Student Chapter. They discuss the development of her interest in the plastics industry, her desire to use hardware and software solutions to red…

Live from NPE2024! PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Emily Bowser, Process and Tooling Engineering Manager at Biomerics. They discussed improving processes to reduce scrap, the impact of mentorship on professional growth, 3-D printing, advice for aspiring engineers, emerging trends in plastics manufacturing, and leaving a legacy …

Live from NPE2024! PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Leslie Sonne, Senior Business Development Manager at Star Thermoplastics, a Hexpol TPE company. They discussed her career journey at Star Thermoplastics, working with clients to determine the best TPE formulations to meet their needs, the variety of TPE applications and cross-m…

Live from NPE2024! PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Bailey Robin, Co-Founder and CEO, Matium. They discuss the journey that led him to found Matium and his future plans. Matium combines sustainable market and material science perspectives to create a comprehensive, interactive, digital supply chain network infrastructure support…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Jay Shoemaker, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Western Michigan University and owner of HL&S Consulting. They discussed mold design, his work with Moldflow and iMFLUX, plastics education, mold design publications, and his participation in SPE-Inspiring Plastics Professionals. Watch the PlastChicks p…

Bonus Episode! PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Jess Rodriguez, Sustainability Project Manager at Berry Global, Inc. They discussed her journey in the plastics industry and working with designers and customers to improve sustainability and recyclability in healthcare packaging through circular content, recycling technology, and …

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Jake Kelly-Walley, an R&D Engineer at Matrix Polymers and PhD Student at Queen's University Belfast. They discussed UN Sustainable Development Goals, responsible consumption of materials, introducing post-consumer recycling into rotational molding processes, banana fiber, deciding which applicati…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Wendy Hoenig, CEO at H & H Business Development, 2024 inductee into the Plastics Hall of Fame, and 2018 Women Breaking the Mold award winner. They discussed Plastics Pioneers, her work at Dow, product incubation, emerging trends in the plastics industry, approaches to and importance of mentoring …

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Dr. Ellen Lee, Technical Leader of Additive Manufacturing Research at Ford Motor Company, live from ANTEC® 2024. They discuss her journey in additive manufacturing, challenges in using additive manufacturing in the automotive sector, developing technical roadmaps, collaboration with the value cha…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Darien Dierksen, Senior Application Engineer at Procter & Gamble. They discuss her journey in the plastics industry, mentoring, challenges for women in the plastics industry, sustainable solutions at Procter & Gamble, the importance of recycling education and her road ahead in plastics. Watch the…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Alethea Schaeffer, VP of Sales & Engineering, USHECO. They discuss her journey in the plastics industry, thermoforming processes, the company's entrepreneurial approach to manufacturing, designing for manufacturing, approaches to problem-solving in engineering, pivoting to support pandemic supply…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host the co-CEOs of Hoffer Plastics: Gretchen Hoffer Farb, Charlotte Hoffer Canning and Alex Hoffer. They discuss the dynamics of a family-owned injection-molding plastics business, their approach to innovation in the plastics industry, the advantages of having multiple co-CEOs, the importance of fami…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Monika Stroeder, PhD, Team Leader, Circular Products R&D at NOVA Chemicals. They review her role in developing new products, her move into technical services, packaging, sustainability and finally into research and development of circular products. They discuss working together with the industry …

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Madison Kramer, a Plastics Engineering sophomore at Penn State Behrend and the first PlastChicks Scholarship Winner. They discuss her scholarship, her interest in plastics engineering, how Lynzie and Mercedes created the PlastChicks podcast, plastics mold design, the benefits of internships in ad…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Sarah Webber, Sustainable Packaging Engineer for Plastic Ingenuity. They discuss her sustainable plastics industry career journey, encouraging others to explore careers in plastics, the importance of involving packaging engineers early in the process when the design is frozen but not ready to lau…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Mitch Rife, Engineering Manager for Additive Manufacturing, Delta TechOps. They discuss transitioning from subtractive to additive manufacturing processes; designing for 3D printing while considering injection molding requirements should production needs increase; producing 3D-printed tools, tool…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Kate Davenport, Co-President of Eureka Recycling, a nonprofit zero waste organization and social enterprise recycler based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They discuss the economics and opportunities in providing recycling services, including finding sustainable markets that are interested in purchasi…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Nathan Rader-Edkin, Plastics Innovation and Resource Center Program Manager, Pennsylvania College of Technology, a Plastics News Rising Star for 2023, and a co-founder of a new plastics career site, PlasticsPostings.com. They discuss his plastics industry career journey, parenting, injection mold…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Dr. Sherrika Sanders, Senior Technical Engineer, Manner Polymers and member of the SPE DEI Advisory Board. They discuss her career journey, being one of the Hidden Figures of Dallas, developing small molecules to authenticate fuel and consumer goods, the use of PVC in building and construction, S…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host Rashed Islam, Head of Product Integrity at Lyft - Transit, Bikes, and Scooters. They discuss his journey in his product integrity career, working at Google and Lyft, the challenges of implementing recycled plastics in products, sustainable transportation design, eStation strategies, the Lyft Micr…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host 3Dnatives guests Alexandre Martel, Co-Founder, and Filippos Voulpiotis, Chief Business Officer. They discuss the role of 3Dnatives as a reliable source of information on the latest trends of the Additive Manufacturing market, common misconceptions about additive manufacturing, the careful work th…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri host four of the 2022 SPE Foundation Scholarship winners: Rachel LeBlanc, Allen Román, Kelsey Allis, and Wyatt McGraw. The SPE Foundation is an arm of SPE that supports the development of plastics professionals by funding quality educational programs, grants, and scholarships, emphasizing science, eng…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Ed Hall, President and CEO of Baerlocher USA, discuss Ed's career journey, the importance of ethics and diversity in the workforce, Baerlocher USA's move into sustainability and services, and the need for the plastics industry to get together to teach, learn and collaborate in their approac…

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Mason Myers, Principal Implementation Consultant at Autodesk, discuss the advantages of using simulation software to make it easier to get a process up and running, saving time and money using simulations, Autodesk's Moldflow Simulation software, and automation software advances in meshing …

PlastChicks Lynzie Nebel and Mercedes Landazuri with guest Neil Thompson, Founder of Teach the Geek, author and podcaster of Teach the Geek to Speak, discuss helping STEM professionals develop their presentation skills to further their career development, the challenges engineers face when communicating to a non-technical audience, attributes of en…