Christmas came early for Joshua Otaigbe. On Dec.
15, Otaigbe, an assistant professor of materials science and
engineering, received word from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
that he had won a career award from its division of materials research.
The award will provide up to $100,000 per year for four years for his
research into glassy phosphate polymers, a type of glassplastic that
could improve the performance of products ranging from batteries to
lasers. The award does several things for Otaigbe (pronounced
Oh-TIE-bee). It puts a project he has "bootlegged" for several years on
firm funding ground. It provides some recognition -Otaigbe is the first
person in his department to cam this national award. And it caps a
successful year for the young professor. Also this year, Otaigbe has
received a $360,000 three-year NSF grant for a project to explore
making permanent magnets from polymers and rare earth alloys (see
adjoining story). He was recognized by the Society of Plastics
Engineers for a paper on his work on atomizing polymer materials.
Another of his projects has caught the eye of an automobile
manufacturer interested in crash-worthy thermoplastic composite parts.
"This has been an excellent year, but it's the result of a lot of hard
work," he said.
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Otaigbe has struggled at times to keep his projects
going. For any young professor_ ideas are far more plentiful than the
funding to explore them. But he has kept promising projects going at
minimum funding levels while trying to attract more funding. Otaigbe
has managed to keep the small but viable research project on glassy
phosphate polymers going at Iowa State for four years. In it, he
explores phosphate glass and polymer materials, looking at both the
basic glass properties and how to optimize the combined properties of
the mixtures. The Work is being carried out with Corning Inc., Coming,
N.Y Making new materials isn't the only thing Otaigbe does from
scratch. Since coming to Iowa State in 1994, he has built a polymers
research program where virtually none existed, and he has helped
develop and integrate polymer science into the MSE program. Otaigbe has
taught and done research on three continents. Born and raised in Benin,Nigeria,
Otaigbe earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Benin, and
went to England for advanced studies, After earning a Ph.D. from the
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in polymer
science and engineering, he returned to the University of Benin to,
revitalize its industrial chemistry
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| program. But his desire to do top quality research and
the lure of better equipped labs in the West drew Otaigbe to North
America and a position at the University of Alberta in Canada. "I have
all of these ideas," he said, "If I cannot do them where I am at, then
I consider other places to do my research. It just wasn't there in
Nigeria. We didn't have an NSF for grants.". In 1992, Otaigbe's
academic life went industrial as he accepted a position with Coming
Inc. "I went into industry to learn about real engineering! and hoping
that the experience would make me a better teacher," he said, "I |
believe it did. It broadened my scope and helped me make
these discovery's that have put me where I am at now."Otaigbe said the
industrial experience also gave him a greater sense of prioritization
and exposed him to multidisciplinary research, in which people from
many different disciplines tackle the same problem together. But the
desire to teach never left him and when Iowa State called, he listened
to the offer.This (Iowa State) was a good opportunity to set up
research and have the freedom to create something from scratch,
although I had to take a pay cut to come here," he said. "I did it
because of my love of academics." |