Charles Goodyear Medal

The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division.

Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed certificate and prize money.

The medal honors individuals for "outstanding invention, innovation, or development which has resulted in a significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry".

[1][2] Awardees give a lecture at an ACS Rubber Division meeting, and publish a review of their work in the society's scientific journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology.

Source:[3][4]

Diamond Rubber Co. researchers David Spence and George Oenslager developed Para-aminodimethylaniline as a vulcanization accelerator in 1912.
Oxidative ageing was an early challenge in the rubber industry. Carroll C. Davis , William C. Geer , Sidney M. Cadwell and Herbert A. Winkelmann all made important contributions to testing and compounding strategies for ageing.
Sheet of synthetic rubber coming off the rolling mill at the plant of Goodrich (1941). Important contributions to synthetic rubbers came from many Goodyear medalists: David Spence , Ira Williams , Joseph C. Patrick , William J. Sparks , Robert M. Thomas , Frederick W. Stavely , Arnold M. Collins , Otto Bayer , Earl L. Warrick , James D. D'Ianni , Samuel E. Horne, Jr. , and Roderic Quirk
The use of Carbon black and silica as fillers for rubber was pioneered by George Oenslager , William B. Wiegand , Joseph C. Krejci , Siegfried Wolff , and Jean-Baptiste Donnet .
Tire technology has been advanced greatly due to contributions of medalists Lorin B. Sebrell , Ray P. Dinsmore , James D. D'Ianni , Frank Herzegh , Herman E. Schroeder , Jean-Marie Massoubre , Adel F. Halasa , Karl A. Grosch , Joseph Kuczkowski , Georg Bohm .
Time–temperature superposition of the viscoelastic response of rubber underlies much of rubber's mechanical behavior. Goodyear medalists contributing to understanding rubber's mechanical properties include: Melvin Mooney , Norman Bekkedahl , John D. Ferry , Samuel D. Gehman , Adolf Schallamach , Leonard Mullins , Alan N. Gent , Ronald S. Rivlin , Alan G. Thomas , Graham J. Lake , Robert F. Landel , Karl A. Grosch , Alan D. Roberts , and C. Michael Roland .
Goodyear medalists have contributed to many non-tire applications of rubber technology, including: John T. Blake , Joseph C. Patrick , Edward A. Murphy , Earl L. Warrick , Joseph P. Kennedy , C. Michael Roland , Judit Puskas .