Description
Dan Abramowicz, CTO of Crown Holdings, interviews FM Global's Vice President of Research, Lou Gritzo, about how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted innovation at his company.
Contributors
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Daniel A. Abramowicz, Chief Technology Officer, Crown Holdings, Inc.
Dan Abramowicz is responsible for innovation and technology development across Crown’s business platforms. These efforts include new product design, new process development, product and process improvements, material developments, engineering, process monitoring, database management, standard setting and cost reductions across the breadth of Crown’s packaging products (food cans and ends; beverage cans and ends; aerosol containers; metal vacuum closures; specialty packaging; and packaging equipment). In addition, Dr. Abramowicz heads Crown’s Environment, Health and Safety Organization and Crown’s Sustainability Initiative.
Before joining Crown, Dr. Abramowicz was a Technical Director in GE’s Global Research Center. In this leadership role he was responsible for technology development across GE’s Industrial and Consumer Businesses, including Appliances, Lighting, Transportation Systems, Industrial Control Systems and Electrical Distribution & Control. In an earlier role with GE, Dr. Abramowicz headed GE’s Environmental Laboratory, utilizing chemical, biological and physical methods to develop innovative remediation and pollution prevention systems, as well as initiatives in green product design.
Dr. Abramowicz received his B.S. degree in Chemistry and his B.A. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from St. Francis University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physical Chemistry from Princeton University. During his time with GE, he was also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Abramowicz is an active volunteer for non-profit organizations and he is currently serving in several leadership roles with such organizations, including Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Salus University, Board of Directors for the Industrial Research Institute, Chair of the Executive Corporate Committee of The Franklin Institute (a renowned science museum), and Chair of The President’s Advisory Board of Conwell-Egan Catholic High School. Dr. Abramowicz is also a current member and past-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Clemson University’s Department of Packaging and past-President of the Board of Governors of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni.
Dr. Abramowicz has recently been recognized with two honors for alumni, being elected to the Andrew Fleming West Society of Princeton University and with St. Francis University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in Science.
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Louis A. Gritzo, PhD, Vice President, Research, FM Global
Dr. Louis Gritzo is Vice President and Manager of Research for FM Global, the world’s largest industrial and commercial property insurance company. FM Global performs risk assessment and loss prevention research in areas including natural hazards (wind, flood, earthquake), terrorism threats, fire and explosion hazards, response and protection of structures, and advanced risk, reliability, and failure prevention techniques. Dr. Gritzo also directs FM Global’s $125-million, 1,600 acre, one-of-a-kind Research Campus, the world’s largest center focused on property loss prevention research. His past experience includes Manager of Fire Science and Technology, and member of the Advanced Concepts Group, a think tank organization, both at Sandia National Laboratories, in
Albuquerque, NM. He received is Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering, with a Minor in Applied Mathematics, from Texas Tech University and serves on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Heat Transfer Division Executive Committee, the Research Advisory Committee for the National Fire Protection Association, the Industrial Research Institute, and several university advisory and technical journal editorial boards.