Headlines News
Alex Knott to receive R. Stanton Avery Pioneer Award 2018

Alex Knott of the Dow Chemical Company has been chosen as the recipient of the R. Stanton Avery Pioneer Award for the 2018 Label Industry Global Awards. Sponsored by Avery Dennison, the R. Stanton Avery Pioneer Award honours the contribution an individual has made in the label and package printing sector.

Knott is a senior scientist in the company and leader of a global team that has created innovations in pressure-sensitive silicone release liner coating technology, including the introduction of Dow’s Flat Release Systems. According to the judging panel, the technology has “not only revolutionized high speed, low coating weight, high performance and labelstock release liner production, but has also been a key factor in helping to drive down silicone coating costs.”

Knott started his career as a Development Chemist in 1987 at Dow Corning, today a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. Since then he has held application engineering, technical leadership and senior scientist roles within this industry, and has expertise in silicone pressure-sensitive systems.

Previous winners of the individual award include: Professor Tan of PEIAC, Tomas Rink of Ritrama, Helmut Schreiner of Schreiner Group, Suzanne Zaccone of GSI Technologies, and Neil McDonough of FlexCon.

Judging for the 15th annual awards program took place June 6 during the recent FINAT European Label Forum (ELF) in Dublin, Ireland, where the panel of international judges met to consider entries across four award categories. During the same meeting, the judging panel narrowed down the finalists for the other three categories:

The Award for Innovation (for companies with more than 300 employees), sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web:

• Esko
• Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division
• Paper Converting Machine Company
• Rotometrics

The Award for Innovation (for companies with up to 300 employees), sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web:

• Dienes Corporation
• Eaglewood Technologies
• Hamillroad Software
• MGI
• Phoseon Technology

The Award for Sustainability:

• Avery Dennison
• Signode India Ltd
• UPM Speciality Papers

All winners and official presentations of the prizes will be announced during Labelexpo Americas 2018, at a gala evening event on September 25.