Isao Noda (born January 29, 1951, in Tokyo, Japan) is a chemical engineer whose research has focused on polymer science and spectroscopy. He holds ninety patents granted in the United States and the EU, has published over three hundred articles, co-authored three books, and received a number of industry-wide awards and recognition for his contributions to his fields of research.[1]
Noda moved to the United States in 1969 to attend Columbia University in the City of New York, where he graduated in 1974 with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. He subsequently received his M.S. in bioengineering (1976), as well as M. Phil (1978) and Ph.D. (1979) in chemical engineering from Columbia. In 1997, he received a D.Sc degree in chemistry from the University of Tokyo.[2]
In 1978, Noda joined Procter & Gamble, where he became an authority in the field of polymer science,[2] specializing in a type of biopolymer, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Noda developed medium-chain-length branched polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA).[3] The most promising PHA product developed during this time was trademarked as Nodax.[4] After retiring from Procter & Gamble in 2012, he accepted a position as adjunct professor at the University of Delaware, where, as of 2014, he continues to teach and research in the areas of polymer science and spectroscopy.[citation needed]
Noda developed a novel class of bio-based biodegradable plastics and received multiple awards for his development of two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) correlation spectroscopy.[5] In February 2013, he became Senior Vice President of Innovation at Meredian Holdings Group Inc., which recently announced the start up of the world's largest production facility for mcl-PHAs.[6]