Prof. Gary Wnek is the Joseph F. Toot, Jr., Professor of Engineering and Professor and Chair of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and has been at CWRU since 2004. He was previously a faculty member in The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and the Department of Chemistry at RPI, and was the Founding Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University in its new School of Engineering. His research interests include processing of polymer multi-layer and polymer fiber/matrix composites, deformation processing, flammability mitigation of common polymers, and synthetic macromolecular constructs that mimic physiological functions. Prof. Wnek has authored or co-authored over 210 publications and holds 38 US patents. He received the 2007 John W. Hyatt Award (benefit to society) from the Society of Plastics Engineers for his work on polymer nano- and microfibers for regenerative medicine and related biomedical applications. He earned a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.