Two Ashland Scientists Honored at SCC Awards

Willaim Thompson, of Ashland, is the recipient of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists' Des Goddard Award.
Willaim Thompson, of Ashland, is the recipient of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists' Des Goddard Award.

Two Ashland scientists have been named the recipients of prestigious awards at the Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ (SCC) 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting and Technology Showcase breakfast in New York City. Ashland senior staff scientist Willaim Thompson earned the Des Goddard Award and Ashland principle scientist Roger McMullen, Ph.D., earned the Hans A. Schaeffer Award. Both awards were presented for papers Thompson and McMullen had written.

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Des Goddard Award

This award recognizes the most innovative paper on polymer science related to cosmetics or personal care. Thompson’s paper, “Investigating Film Properties of Polymers Used in Anhydrous Sunscreen Formulations Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM): Polymer/Polymer interactions and Their Relation to Vapor Transmission” was published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science | Vol. 69 No. 3.

Thompson has a B.S. in chemistry from Ramapo College, which he received in 1983, and after graduating he worked with Ciba-Geigy, performing QC testing for Azo dye production. He then worked at Ethyl Corporation for a short tenure, before entering the specialty chemical sector in 1987 with GAF, which later became International Specialty Products, where he was involved with surfactant synthesis and process research. Much of Thompson’s work centers on personal care ingredients.

Currently, Thompson is responsible for Ashland’s scanning electron microscopy and particle size analysis laboratory. Thompson is well versed in a variety of Materials Science techniques, like atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, optical microscopy and thermal analysis by differential scanning calorimetry.

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Hans A. Schaeffer Award

This award recognizes the most innovative paper presented at the 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting. McMullen’s paper is titled, “Evaluation of the Surface Properties of Hair with Acoustic Analysis.”

McMullen has a B.S. in chemistry from Saint Vincent College and a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Seton Hall University.

With more than 20 years of experience in the personal care industry, McMullen has specialties in optics, imaging and spectroscopy of hair and skin. He is the principal scientist in the Material Science department at Ashland, as well as an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University where he teaches biochemistry to students pursuing an M.S. in cosmetic science and pharmaceutical chemistry.

He also actively engages and participates in educational activities in the personal care industry and frequently teaches continuing education courses for the SCC and Tri-Princeton.

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