Joseph Manna received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University at Buffalo and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. His graduate studies focused on the structure and bonding of tungsten alkylidyne complexes. He was a Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of Utah where he developed novel approaches to the synthesis and self-assembly of supramolecular macrocycles.
In 1997 Joe joined The Rohm and Haas Company as an Emulsion Polymerization Process Chemist at the Louisville plant, supporting the Plastic Additives business. In 2002, he was promoted to a Group Leader position. During his time in Louisville, he was closely involved in the successful scale-up of several new PARALOIDTM polymer technologies. Joe is a trained Six Sigma Black Belt and Certified Green Belt Project Leader, and applied his skills to reduce waste and drive quality improvements.
In 2004, Joe joined The Rohm and Haas Company’s Consumer and Industrial Specialties business as a Senior Scientist at the Spring House (PA) R&D site. He was involved in the development of new dispersant and emulsion polymer technologies for the home and fabric care market. In 2007, Joe was promoted to Group Leader in the Home and Personal Care business. Joe’s contributions were recognized by a Rohm and Haas Vice-President Award for detergent product innovation and commercialization, as well as a 2008 “Best Innovation Contributor” award from Henkel for leading the team that successfully commercialized new ACUSOLTM dispersant technologies for auto dishwashing applications. During his time with Rohm and Haas he additionally contributed to commercial products for the industrial water treatment, mineral processing, and oil and gas markets.
In 2009, Joe moved into a leader role with The Dow Chemical Company’s new Formulation Science Core R&D team at the Spring House (PA) site. He led a team that contributed to development of new polymers and formulations for coatings, personal care, construction, oil and gas, and microbial control applications. In 2014 Joe was promoted to an Associate Director role in Dow Chemical’s Formulation Science Core R&D team located at Collegeville (PA). During his time in industry Joe was a coinventor on 20+ unique patents.
In 2019 Joseph Manna started working at the DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) as Director of Research & Development for the Wasteform Processing Technologies section in the Environmental Stewardship Directorate, supporting the Savannah River, Hanford and Oak Ridge sites with the processing and immobilization of legacy waste.
In 2022 Joe became Director for SRNL’s Materials Technology and Energy Sciences Division in the Environmental & Legacy Management Directorate. His team supports programs at DOE sites through non-destructive and corrosion analysis of waste storage and processing systems, grout and glass wasteform formulation development for waste immobilization, and new materials and energy efficient processes for chemical transformations, waste upcycling, and defense related efforts.