Costas G. Gogos, PhD, distinguished research professor of chemical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology, is a noted chemical engineer who specializes in polymers—better known as plastics. He currently leads a $2.5 million research program at NJIT funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to develop new manufacturing technologies for explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics. The new material Gogos is developing will be environmentally benign and more energy-efficient than current similar materials used in different applications.  

Gogos is past president and founder of the Polymer Processing Institute, a research center at NJIT.  The institute serves the plastics industry through its research programs in partnership with industrial members and affiliates to help small companies in New Jersey solve engineering problems. Under Gogos’ technical leadership,  activities were expanded to include plastics process development, product design, recycling, polymer characterization, and generation of custom software for manufacturing and research and development.

Gogos is best known among his peers for his textbook about polymer engineering, The Principles of Polymer Processing (1979), which still is in use. Gogos led the industry-sponsored polymer mixing study, an important research project that contributed greatly to the understanding of polymer blends and to the ability to predict and control the performance of extruders used in mixing operations.

In 2005, he received the highest honor—the international award—from the Society of Plastics Engineers. The honor recognizes a lifetime of accomplishment in polymer processing.  The society represents more than 30,000 plastics engineers in more than 75 countries.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton University.  He is a professor emeritus of chemical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology.