Ruth H. Pater
Dr. Ruth H. Pater is a Senior Polymer Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. She received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and then earned a M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Tamkang University in Taiwan. Prior to joining NASA Langley in 1986, she worked at NASA Glenn and United Technologies Research Center in Hartford, Connecticut. She also taught chemistry at the University of Massachusetts and did post-doctorate work at Brown University.
Dr. Pater is an internationally recognized expert in high temperature polymeric materials. Her research focuses primarily on the development of high temperature, chemical- and moisture-resistant polymer matrix composites for space exploration, advanced aircraft engine and related applications. Her pioneering research has led to the award of more than 18 U.S. and foreign patents and the publication of over 100 technical papers.
In recognition of her research activities and contributions, Dr. Pater has received numerous prestigious awards. Among them is the NASA Agency Commercial Invention of the Year Award for the development of LaRC RP 46 polyimide technologies in 2005, the Paul F. Holloway Non-Aerospace Technology Transfer Award in 2004, and NASA Langley Nomination for Invention of the Year award in 2002. Dr. Pater also received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the International R&D 100 Award for the development of the LARC-RP 46™ polyimide, both in 1992. That same year, Dr. Pater was also awarded NASA Langley’s Floyd L. Thompson Fellowship to conduct cutting-edge research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan for one year. (In 2002 she was invited back to the Institute to serve as a visiting professor and to lead its research in high performance polymeric materials.) In 1993, she received her first Langley’s nomination for NASA Inventor of the Year. She was also selected that year to receive the Technology Transfer Award and the NASA Technical Excellence Dual Career Ladder Award. From 1997 through 2005, she received an annual Creativity and Innovation award from NASA Langley. In 2006, she was awarded an Innovative Partnership Program to develop extreme temperature RP 46 composite insulated bus pipe technologies.
In recent years, Dr. Pater has focused her research interests on the development of lightweight, high temperature, and high magnetic strength materials based on quantum chemistry and the development of non-autoclave slip casting process for low cost fabrication of high performance polymer matrix composite materials.
