AKRON-Brendan Rodgers has been in the tire and rubber industry for over 40 years in a career that has taken him all over the world.
From Dublin to Luxembourg and over to Akron while in the first part of his career with Goodyear. Then to ExxonMobil first at the firm's Chemical Technology Center in Baytown, Texas, and his journey with the company continuing with a time in Saudi Arabia. After that then three-plus years in China, before coming back to Texas and starting his own consulting firm, Ell Technologies.
During his career, Rodgers received more than 30 patents in tire and rubber track applications, published a number of books and research papers, and led teams that have developed materials for tires-particularly truck tires-that focused on improvement in rolling resistance and fuel technology.
The 2024 medalist said the Saudi project meant a lot, not only to ExxonMobil, but to the U.S., because of the feedstocks and the opportunities it opened up.
When he was transferred to Asia, he said his assignment, which involved getting the staff and engineers from ExxonMobil sites in Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore and India to all work as one team, was quite a challenge.
Looking forward as he continues as a consultant with his firm Ell Technologies, he said working on graphene as a potential replacement for 6ppd is certainly opening up some more exciting opportunities going forward.