Ames Tribune

Wednesday May 13, 1998

Engineering prof chosen for inventors guide

By Diane Heldt

Staff Writer

An Iowa State University engineering professor has been selected for inclusion in an annual publication that recognizes fewer than 10 percent of all patent holders each year forhonorary membership.

Joshua Otaigbe, a professor of materials science and engineering who has been at ISU since 1994, will be in the 1998-99 edition of Who's Who of American Inventors.The publication profiles Americans whose inventions have impacted society.

Otaigbe said he was surprised when he was notified this week.

It is such an honor, he said. It's very prestigious.

The edition,which should be released in a few months, will include a short biography of Otaigbe and a description of the patent for which he was chosen.

The patent,Otaigbe's third, is for a process for making pastes for sealing together glass parts. The pastes are useful in the television industry where they are used to seal the front glass panels to thefunnels of the cathode ray tubes, he said.

In the past, adhesives were used to seal the two television parts together, but they were difficult to apply and consistently failed to hold the two pieces together after a period of time, Otaigbe said.

The sealant developed by Otaigbe has an easier application process and expands to enhance adhesion of the parts, he said. Otaigbereceived the patent in April 1996.

It's acompletely new invention that seems to be working well for the industry, he said.

Much of Otaigbe's research focuses on polymers. He has several patents pending in that area, including one for a formula of plastics made out of soy protein. The plastics would biodegrade faster than conventional plastics butstill hold up when immersed in water.