HHMI Clark Seminar--2004

Distinguished Chemistry Alumni Seminar
in Honor of Professor Howell Clark

2004

Dr. Denise Rutherford

Dr. Denise Rutherford and Dr. Howell Clark

Dr. Rutherford is currently Technical Director for Industrial Adhesives and Tapes Division
3M Corporation, St. Paul, MN

The title of Dr. Rutherford's talk was "Six Sigma at 3M: Innovation meets Discipline".

ABSTRACT

For more than a century, 3M's culture has fostered creativity and given employees the freedom to take risks and try new ideas. This culture empowers the imagination, enables cooperation among employees, and has led to a steady stream of more than 50,000 new products. 3M has a significant investment in R&D which generated and sustains its core technology platforms. In early 2001, 3M began its journey to becoming a Six Sigma company, employing this methodology to pursue continuous quality improvement and reducing inherent variability. Six Sigma requires a thorough process and product understanding and is clearly focused on customer driven expectations. The synergy between innovation and Six Sigma discipline is taking 3M to another level of understanding its customers, its operations, and its employees. This talk will present relevant aspects of the speaker's career in research, Six Sigma and technical management.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Denise R. Rutherford is currently Technical Director for Industrial Adhesives and Tapes Division, Customer Solutions Center. Her previous assignment was Six Sigma Master Black Belt in Engineered Adhesives Division, where she faced challenges in early deployment of Six Sigma across a large division. Prior to Six Sigma, Denise was a Product Development Manager in Bonding Systems Division with responsibility for the conductive adhesives program and other new product development teams. From 1995-1997, she worked as a product developer on a fixed abrasive system for chemical mechanical planarization, resulting in new 3M products for the industry. Denise began her career at 3M in 1989, working in one of the R&D organizations on biodegradable materials. She collaborated with 3Mers around the world to advance biodegradable polymer technology, resulting in 11 issued US patents, several technical publications, and a 6 month tenure in 3M Germany to work with European colleagues to assess the opportunities for new products using biodegradable plastics. Denise was awarded a Ph.D. in Organic / Polymer Chemistry in 1989 from Colorado State University where she worked for Dr. John Stille on conductive polymers. She holds a M.S. in Organic Chemistry and a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Murray State University. She did her masters research with Dr. Oliver Muscio in physical organic chemistry and Dr. Howell Clark was her undergraduate advisor.

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