Monica Tisack, Ph.D.
Director
Monica has over 19 years of polymer industrial experience with both DuPont and Chemours, and joined MPI in January of 2017. She has global experience in business management and strategy, product and market management, new product development, technical service, and manufacturing trouble shooting.
Robert Thompson
Assistant Director
Robert has a B.S. in Polymer Science and a MBA. He has more than 25 years experience assisting industrial customers and is the primary customer interface for MPI. He has served as technical service leader and operations manager and is a key contributor to the strategic mission of the Institute. Robert is also a ISO 17025 Lead Assessor and Project Management Professional.
Ty Posey
Senior Scientist and Workforce Development Leader
Ty has a B.S. in Polymer Science and a M.S. in Workforce Development. Ty joined MPI in 1997 and has trained thousands of employees for companies of all sizes. He is a NIST-certified instructor for the suite of Lean Manufacturing Courses, a certified plastics instructor, and a Six Sigma Black Belt. His technical areas of expertise include composites manufacturing, polymer processing, CAD, and 3D printing.
Sara Bayley
Laboratory and Quality Manager
With more than 15 years experience in polymer research and development, Sara's B.S. in Polymer Science has enabled her to become a subject matter expert in the areas of ISO/IEC 17025, material science, analytical and physical testing. Sara's expertise is ASTM testing and method development on a wide range of instrumentation including advanced microscopy techniques.
Business Development Manager
Caitlyne Shirley
Caitlyne has a M.S. in Chemistry, over 10 years of experience in research and 4 years of experience in lab management. She is an expert in a wide variety of synthetic and analytical techniques and instrumentation. Caitlyne's experience in start-up management and technical know-how are assets to companies wanting to expand their business or solve technical problems.
Product Development Manager
Jeff Burger
Jeff has a B.S. in Polymer Science and an MBA with over 14 years of industrial experience. Jeff joined MPI in 2006. He uses his coatings expertise, synthesis experience, polymer extrusion, and start-up development work to benefit customers looking to develop new products.
Synthetic Specialist
Taler Dykes
Taler is a 2019 graduate with a B.S. in Polymer Science. His lab experience concentrates on polyol and polyurethane syntheses and optimization of polymerizations by using ReactIR technology.
Technical and Marketing Representative
Tianli Ren
Tianli has dual M.S. degrees in Polymer Science and in Marketing Analytics. She is experienced with research and development of polymer related products, with particular focus on material property analysis and marketing strategy for new products.