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Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) has recognized Art Dodge, CEO and president of Ecore Int’l, as a 2025 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Greater Philadelphia Award winner. The prestigious program honors visionary business leaders who are driving innovation, fueling growth and making a lasting impact in their industries and communities. For 40 years, EY has celebrated entrepreneurs who are transforming the business landscape and creating long-term value.

The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) announced that Curtis Dubay, Chief Economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will headline the 2025 Polyurethanes Technical Conference as keynote speaker during the opening session on October 6 in St. Louis, Mo.

A groundbreaking innovation from ETH Zurich is set to transform medical training and reduce reliance on animal testing. Swiss Vascular, a spin-off from the university’s Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, has developed anatomically precise silicone models of cerebral blood vessels, offering a hyper-realistic platform for practicing complex medical procedures.

While studying different cross-linking structures in silicone, the research team stumbled upon the potential for electrical conductivity in a copolymer, which is a polymer chain containing two different types of repeating units—cage-structured and then linear silicones in this case.

The possibility for conductivity arises from the way electrons can move across Si—O—Si bonds with overlapping orbitals. Semiconductors have two main states: the ground state, which doesn’t conduct electricity, and a conducting state, which does. The conducting state, also known as an excited state, occurs when some electrons jump up to the next electron orbital, which is connected across the material like a metal.

Black Donuts Inc. has announced the launch of InTire Labs, a new independent material research center located in Tampere, Finland. The facility, officially open on July 16, 2025, is designed to accelerate the development of sustainable tire and rubber materials. It will serve as a neutral and confidential platform for research and development, supporting tire manufacturers, rubber product producers, and raw material suppliers worldwide.

Falken Tyre Europe GmbH announced the appointment of Hiroshi Hamada as its new Managing Director, Chairman & CEO.

Hamada has enjoyed 33 years at Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), initially joining the company back in 1992 – then named The Ohtsu Tire & Rubber Company. In 2018, Hamada became Vice President of SRI China and President of Dunlop Tire in China. From2024, Hamada continues to serve as Senior Executive Officer of SRI.

Goodyear in collaboration with Canine Companions® and Peanuts®, the Goodyear Blimp will transport a group of eight-week-old puppies from Smyrna, Tennessee, to Nashville for the first time in its iconic 100-year history.

This inaugural flight is an exciting new mode of transportation for these future service dogs, who usually travel by plane to their volunteer puppy raisers throughout the country.

The pups who are destined for service dog careers will be joined in the air by arguably the most famous canine of them all: Snoopy.

Bridgestone Corporation has announced its continued support for the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC), unveiling a new generation of sustainable tires featuring ENLITEN™ technology. These cutting-edge tires mark a milestone in eco-innovation, incorporating over 65% recycled and renewable materials—the highest ratio ever used by the company in motorsports.

At the EUROMAP General Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany, the European plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers have elected their new presidency. Tobias Baur, CSO of the German injection molding specialist ARBURG GmbH & Co KG, is the new President of the European umbrella association.