Applause

Gardiner Receives M.T. Harvey Award

Dr. Robert A. Gardiner of 3M Co., St. Paul, Minn., is the 2000 recipient of Cardolite Corp.'s (Newark, N.J.) M.T. Harvey Award. Consistent with its mission on advancing the use of cashew nutshell liquid technology, Cardolite established the M.T. Harvey award in 1998 for outstanding contribution to the commercialization of cashew nutshell liquid.

The award is named after Dr. Mortimer T. Harvey, who is the "father" of commercial applications of cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL). Dr. Harvey characterized the chemical structure of CNSL in the 1920s and 1930s while a student at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and Columbia University in New York City. After finishing his graduate work, he formed HARVEL Corp. to continue research into commercial applications of CNSL. Most of the significant patents on CNSL up to the 1950s were in the name of HARVEL. The most significant of these was the one for friction particles, which is used in the development of brake linings.

Dr. Gardiner received the award for his invention of phenalkamines. In 1973, while working as a chemist for 3M, Gardiner invented the epoxy-curing-agent technology based on CNSL, currently called phenalkamines. In fact, Gardiner coined the name phenalkamine. His benchmark product, CardoliteR NC-541, and its derivatives and copies are the most frequently used phenalkamines today.