CenTiRe Announces Leadership Change at the University of Akron

 CenTiRe leadership team member Dr Josh Wong, Site Director at the University of Akron, is resigning from University of Akron effective September 1, 2022, and is stepping down from his leadership role in CenTiRe. Dr. Wong was a founding faculty member of CenTiRe since its inception in 2012 and then ascended to the Site Director leadership position in 2020. One of his major accomplishments in this role was participating in the successful NSF IUCRC Phase III grant approval earlier this year, thereby assuring continuing NSF funding support for the next 5 years. Also, Dr. Wong was one of the first UA faculty whose project was selected for funding by CenTiRe in 2012. He has been a UA faculty member for over 18 years, and was promoted to full professor at UA in 2013.

Dr. Wong’s other accomplishments include being a recipient of an NSF Faculty Early CAREER Award in 2007, being elected a Life Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) in 2015 and an elected Fellow of the Society of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2014. He was also the Chair of SPE’s Engineering Properties and Structures Division in 2012-2013. He will be joining LyondellBasell in Cincinnati as a Senior Polymer Research Scientist in September.
Dr Wong has been an invaluable member of the CenTiRe leadership team and we thank him for is dedication and many contributions during his tenure at our center, as well as wish him success in this next phase of his career.

Professor Jae-Won Choi has graciously agreed to become the new Site Director for CenTiRe at the University of Akron, which has recently become official with NSF IUCRC administration approval. Dr. Choi has been part of our academic team for several years and contributed significantly to CenTiRe’s past success. Most recently, he was the lead Principle Investigator of a CenTiRe funded research project that concluded in 2022, titled 3D printed smart tires for health monitoring.
In addition to being a full professor of mechanical engineering with tenure at UA, Dr. Choi is a prolific researcher with numerous publications and is a recognized expert in the field of additive manufacturing. The CenTiRe leadership team is confident that he will do a marvelous job as the new site director at UA and his contributions will help elevate CenTiRe to our next level of accomplishments. We welcome Jae-Won to this new leadership role.