Dr. Russell A. Livigni, retired from GenCorp as the vice president of corporate technology, was named the Rubber Division, ACS 2013 Charles Goodyear Medal winner for his pioneering work with high trans rubbers. Dr. Livigni led the discovery and development of high trans styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR), a crystallizing rubber that has many of the properties and strengths of natural rubber (NR) but does not oxidize or degrade like NR. It was a major breakthrough in tire technology.Dr. Livigni is a native of Akron, Ohio. He graduated from Kenmore High School in 1952, where he was the winner of the Bausch & Lomb Award in Science. While attending high school, he worked part-time in the credit department at the M. O'Neil department store in downtown Akron. After graduating, he worked at the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.'s control laboratory of its Synthetic Rubber Development facility. In 1956, Dr. Livigni completed his B.Sc. in chemistry and in 1960 his Ph.D. in polymer chemistry, with both degrees having been earned at the University of Akron. During his last two years as an undergraduate, he worked as a research assistant in the Institute of Rubber Research. He was the recipient of the Merck Award for undergraduate chemistry majors and was awarded the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.'s Fellowship in his first two years of graduate studies. He was on a National Science Foundation Fellowship his last two years of graduate school.After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Livigni was first employed at the Ford Scientific Laboratory of the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1961, Dr. Livigni joined GenCorp (at that time, The General Tire & Rubber Co.) as a senior research chemist. Subsequently, he rose through a series of positions of increasing responsibility: Group Leader, Polymer Characterization (1962–1963); Section Head, Materials Chemistry & Polymer Characterization (1963–1975); Manager, Polymer & Analytical Chemistry (1975–1980); Associate Director, GenCorp Research (1980–1987); and Vice-President and Director, GenCorp Research (1988–1995). He became Vice-President, Corporate Technology, at GenCorp in 1995 and retired in 1996 to consult for Omnova, a spin-off of GenCorp. Presently, he is a consultant in polymer and rubber chemistry and R&D organization and a member of the advisory boards of the Arts & Sciences College and Chemistry Department of the University of Akron.Dr. Livigni has 37 U.S. patents and numerous technical publications. He discovered high trans SBR, a crystallizing rubber now used in tires. He was involved in the development and commercialization of Telagen used as a rocket propellant binder and poly(propylene oxide) polyols prepared with the zinc hexacyanocobaltate complex catalyst. A past chairman of the Gordon Elastomers Conference (1978), he was awarded the ACESS (Akron Council Engineering and Scientific Societies) Distinguished Award of Council (1991), Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award (1997), University of Akron Alumni Honor Award (2002), University of Akron Department of Polymer Science Outstanding Alumni Award (2002), and the University of Akron Buchtel Award in Natural Sciences (2008).