January 20, 2010
TRI: From Hoover and Textiles to Medical Wonders and Everything In Between
Michael J. Drzewinski
President, TRI/Princeton
Minutes of the 16th Meeting of the 68th Year
President George Hansen opened the 16th meeting of the 68th year of the Old Guard at 10:15 am in the Convocation Room of the Friend Center. Following the invocation, Dick Armstrong read the minutes of the January 13th meeting. Bob Craig introduced his guest, Dorothy Windhorst. Jack Reilly, membership chair, made available biographical information for the following five candidates for Old Guard membership (proposer and first and second seconders listed in order in parenthesis):
William Parnelle Burks (Bill Haynes, Phil Dresner, Guy Dean)
Anthony Stuart Glockler (Jock McFarlane, Jim Dineen, Jim Livingston)
Charles Augustus Gray (Cy Meisel, Ted Meth, Charles Jaffin)
Sybil Langbaum Stokes (Ruth Miller, Nick Wilson, Herb Abelson)
Alice Goodloe Whipple (Robert Miller, Dick Armstrong, Cyril Franks)
Voting on membership will be at the January 27 meeting.
The speaker, Dr. Michael Drzewinski (pronounced “Derwinski”), president of TRI Princeton, was introduced by Joe Giordmaine. Dr. Drzewinski has a doctorate in material sciences and engineerng from MIT as well as degrees from RPI and University of Massachusetts. He has had industrial experience at several firms and developed expertise in new products, new applications, and new businesses. Prior to becoming president of TRI in 2008, he was chief innovation officer and global vice-president of technology for International Specialty Products. The title of his talk was “TRI: From Hoover and Textiles to Medical Wonders and Everything in Between.”
From developing treatments for uniforms in both world wars to an important role in consumer goods such as Bounty paper towels and Stainmaster carpets and cooperative studies with Brazilian cosmetologists, TRI Princeton, formerly the Textile Research Institute, has ridden the ups and downs of the American textile industry for 80 years. Housed largely in an impressive mansion in the Riverside section of Princeton, it had its beginnings in two government initiatives in 1930, each bearing the mark of President Hoover. One of these was the Textile Foundation, a joint government-industry organization created by act of Congress in a law signed by Hoover. The second was the Textile Research Institute, originally the United States Institute for Textile Research, created by a Hoover directive. Both were created to support the American textile industry, then considered, in the depression year of 1930, a vital national asset. Both were largely research organizations, and they worked closely together, sometimes sharing facilities and even officers, till their eventual merger as the Textile Research Institute, a New Jersey non-profit educational corporation in 1951. Throughout the thirties and into the forties, research was performed or sponsored at a number of universities and at the National Bureau of Standards. The inefficiency of such an operation was recognized, and a centralized location was sought. Since the textile industry had largely abandoned New England for the South, but the South was still considered somewhat of an intellectual backwater, official eyes looked to the New York City area and proximity to a major university. Princeton obviously fit the bill, and in 1944 51/2 acres of what had originally been part of the Paton estate, including the large estate house, was purchased.
Dr. Stewart Paton, Princeton Class of 1886, was required under the terms of his mother’s will, to establish residence in Princeton, which he did by purchasing a large tract of swampland east of Harrison Street in the early twentieth century. He built a large house, now the main TRI building. He became a friend of Woodrow Wilson, who over the years appointed him chair of a the neurobiology department at Princeton, head of the Carrier Foundation in Skillman, and lead investigator of war-related mental illness at the Mayo Clinic.
After extensive renovations to the house and temporary existence in rented quarters in the University’s chemical lab under famed physical chemist Henry Eyring as interim research director, the move to the Paton house was made in 1946. This year also saw the arrival of Dr. John Dillon as permanent research director for both the Institute and the Foundation. Dr. Dillon became president of the combined organization in 1958 and in his 25 years with TRI put it on the path to becoming the premier textile research institution in the world.
Most of the research in the Dillon era was directed at the behavior of fibers. By the 1970’s, with annual revenues going from $600,000 to $1.2M, basic textiles had lost their luster and the Institute explored other areas such as synthetic fibers, flammability, composites, and reinforced elastomers. The arrival of Dr. Yash Kamath kindled interest in hair chemistry, still a major area of research. The 80’s saw revenue go to $2.2M and, with the US textile industry moving offshore, interest navigate to more basic research, including friction and fluid flow in fibers, separation science, and polymer structure-property relationships. Revenue sagged in the 90’s and early years of the 21st century and attention turned to more applied research. Current interest includes battery separators, ultrawater filtration, and cooperative ventures with several institutions. The latter include MIT for nanofabrics (consider a smart shirt that itself becomes a tourniquet when it senses blood or a uniform fitted with programmable sensors that prevents injury from friendly fire from compatibly programmed firearms), R. W. Johnson for fabrics for spinal neurosurgery, and Brazilian cosmetologists for scientific approaches to hair treatment. Clearly TRI has come a long way from cotton and wool.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jerry Berkelhammer
William Parnelle Burks (Bill Haynes, Phil Dresner, Guy Dean)
Anthony Stuart Glockler (Jock McFarlane, Jim Dineen, Jim Livingston)
Charles Augustus Gray (Cy Meisel, Ted Meth, Charles Jaffin)
Sybil Langbaum Stokes (Ruth Miller, Nick Wilson, Herb Abelson)
Alice Goodloe Whipple (Robert Miller, Dick Armstrong, Cyril Franks)
Voting on membership will be at the January 27 meeting.
The speaker, Dr. Michael Drzewinski (pronounced “Derwinski”), president of TRI Princeton, was introduced by Joe Giordmaine. Dr. Drzewinski has a doctorate in material sciences and engineerng from MIT as well as degrees from RPI and University of Massachusetts. He has had industrial experience at several firms and developed expertise in new products, new applications, and new businesses. Prior to becoming president of TRI in 2008, he was chief innovation officer and global vice-president of technology for International Specialty Products. The title of his talk was “TRI: From Hoover and Textiles to Medical Wonders and Everything in Between.”
From developing treatments for uniforms in both world wars to an important role in consumer goods such as Bounty paper towels and Stainmaster carpets and cooperative studies with Brazilian cosmetologists, TRI Princeton, formerly the Textile Research Institute, has ridden the ups and downs of the American textile industry for 80 years. Housed largely in an impressive mansion in the Riverside section of Princeton, it had its beginnings in two government initiatives in 1930, each bearing the mark of President Hoover. One of these was the Textile Foundation, a joint government-industry organization created by act of Congress in a law signed by Hoover. The second was the Textile Research Institute, originally the United States Institute for Textile Research, created by a Hoover directive. Both were created to support the American textile industry, then considered, in the depression year of 1930, a vital national asset. Both were largely research organizations, and they worked closely together, sometimes sharing facilities and even officers, till their eventual merger as the Textile Research Institute, a New Jersey non-profit educational corporation in 1951. Throughout the thirties and into the forties, research was performed or sponsored at a number of universities and at the National Bureau of Standards. The inefficiency of such an operation was recognized, and a centralized location was sought. Since the textile industry had largely abandoned New England for the South, but the South was still considered somewhat of an intellectual backwater, official eyes looked to the New York City area and proximity to a major university. Princeton obviously fit the bill, and in 1944 51/2 acres of what had originally been part of the Paton estate, including the large estate house, was purchased.
Dr. Stewart Paton, Princeton Class of 1886, was required under the terms of his mother’s will, to establish residence in Princeton, which he did by purchasing a large tract of swampland east of Harrison Street in the early twentieth century. He built a large house, now the main TRI building. He became a friend of Woodrow Wilson, who over the years appointed him chair of a the neurobiology department at Princeton, head of the Carrier Foundation in Skillman, and lead investigator of war-related mental illness at the Mayo Clinic.
After extensive renovations to the house and temporary existence in rented quarters in the University’s chemical lab under famed physical chemist Henry Eyring as interim research director, the move to the Paton house was made in 1946. This year also saw the arrival of Dr. John Dillon as permanent research director for both the Institute and the Foundation. Dr. Dillon became president of the combined organization in 1958 and in his 25 years with TRI put it on the path to becoming the premier textile research institution in the world.
Most of the research in the Dillon era was directed at the behavior of fibers. By the 1970’s, with annual revenues going from $600,000 to $1.2M, basic textiles had lost their luster and the Institute explored other areas such as synthetic fibers, flammability, composites, and reinforced elastomers. The arrival of Dr. Yash Kamath kindled interest in hair chemistry, still a major area of research. The 80’s saw revenue go to $2.2M and, with the US textile industry moving offshore, interest navigate to more basic research, including friction and fluid flow in fibers, separation science, and polymer structure-property relationships. Revenue sagged in the 90’s and early years of the 21st century and attention turned to more applied research. Current interest includes battery separators, ultrawater filtration, and cooperative ventures with several institutions. The latter include MIT for nanofabrics (consider a smart shirt that itself becomes a tourniquet when it senses blood or a uniform fitted with programmable sensors that prevents injury from friendly fire from compatibly programmed firearms), R. W. Johnson for fabrics for spinal neurosurgery, and Brazilian cosmetologists for scientific approaches to hair treatment. Clearly TRI has come a long way from cotton and wool.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jerry Berkelhammer