Howard Colvin has worked in the rubber industry for over 30 years as a chemist and a polymer scientist. He was in charge of the polymer group at the Goodyear Chemical Division for 13 years where he worked on new materials using emulsion and solution polymer technology. He was Professor of Chemistry at Florida College for four years, and later served as an adjunct teaching Biochemistry. He was a senior scientist at Cooper’s global technical center serving in various roles, but primarily led Cooper’s effort to determine if guayule – a sustainable rubber that can be grown in North America – could be used in tires. He holds over 50 US patents and has published a number of articles in refereed journals along with a book chapter. He is the winner of the 2021 Melvin Moon Distinguished Technology award made by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society for “exceptional technical competence by making significant and repeated contributions to rubber technology”.