2013 Excellence in Research Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

October 3, 2013

Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry
Department of Biomedical Engineering

This year, for the first time, the NJIT Board of Overseers presents the Excellence in Research Lifetime Achievement Award and recognizes Dr. Michael Jaffe for his distinguished career in industry and academe.  Dr. Jaffe is a research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Newark College of Engineering and the director of the Medical Device Concept Laboratory, a center he founded in 1999 after a long and productive career as a polymer chemist with Hoechst Celanese Corporation, from which he retired as a Research Fellow. 

Dr. Jaffe is the inventor of the High Modulus Low Shrinkage polyester tire cord product and process, which is still in commercial use. In addition, he led the group that researched, developed and commercialized the Vectra® family of thermotropic polyesters and led research programs in areas ranging from ceramic fiber development, to high performance polymer blends to biomimetic approaches to materials design.

Since joining NJIT in 1999, Dr. Jaffe has pioneered the development of new devices and systems from processing polymers in a new mini processing lab that he has established. He has collaborated with Dr. Treena Livingston Arinzeh to develop patented scaffolding technologies that promote growth and differentiation of non-embryonic stem cells. He is also a pioneer in the creation of chemical synthetic routes by which sugar-based chemicals can be used as building blocks to produce new monomers, polymers and additives for the commercial plastics and cosmetics industry, creating non-toxic alternatives based on renewable feed stocks.

With 18 patents and 18 book chapters, Dr. Jaffe has been a member of the National Materials Advisory Board, the Space Sciences Board, chairman of the U.S. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and chairman of the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).  He was recently named as a Fellow of the ACS.