George Kubas

Background

About George Kubas

I first pursued an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering. During my Junior and Senior years, I performed research for NASA and the U.S. Air Force in the field of shape memory alloys and shape memory polymers. My research in this field led to the creation of morphing structures activated by a thermal force. After my undergraduate degree, I pursued my doctorate in Materials Engineering. During my doctorate, my research focused on the creation of biosensors targeting explosives. This work resulted in the discovery of peptides tailored towards a high explosive called pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and their incorporation into biosensors based on carbon nanotube technology. In addition, I developed a model that used density functional tight binding (dftb) theory to predict the electrical effect on a field effect transistor biosensor based on peptide functionalized carbon nanotubes resulting from an interaction with a single PETN molecule. This amalgamation of disciplines helped me to not only gain experience in materials and chemical engineering fields, but also in biology and theoretical physics. After graduation, I began working for Simon Roofing in the new product research and development field. At Simon Roofing, the R&D team has developed new and advanced liquid applied roofing products and epoxies. Also, our research has helped to create a new product that we believe will revolutionize the industry. With the inception of this new product came the development of an industrial fabrication line. This has led to my position at Simon Roofing transforming into a mixture of R&D Engineer and plant Chemical Engineer. Thus, I am currently working at the Simon Products plant in Struthers where my job highlights include research and design, optimization of existing manufacturing processes, daily operations, scale-up of lab trials, and leading the new production line installation ranging from site preparation to full time production.