Jacqueline Anim, BSc, MSc, PhD (hon.)
Director, North America Medical-Grade Materials Consortium
Jackie Anim is a senior principal materials engineer at Johnson & Johnson Medtech (Cincinnati), where she also serves as a cross-sector subject matter expert for the company. She has more than 30 years of experience in materials and process technology solutions for plastic applications in both automotive and medical technology markets.
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As founder and now director of the North America Medical-Grade Materials Consortium (MGMC), Anim sees the organization’s activities as filling a long-standing need for the medical marketplace. “When I joined the medtech sector, I realized that apart from implant applications, there were no standards to guide the formulation, manufacturing, selection, or use of materials in healthcare products,” she says. “MGMC creates an opportunity to participate in addressing this critical issue.”
In 2019, Anim was named a woman of excellence and industry leader in her field of engineering by the Professional Organization of Women of Excellence Recognized (POWER). In 2021, she was featured by Medical Design Briefs as one of the leading women in engineering and science. Anim is also a winner of the Johnson & Johnson global surgery award for scientific excellence for her role in leading the development of proprietary electromechanical material for harmonic-powered devices.
For the future, Anim expects that MGMC will continue to make progress toward the goal of a single, harmonized document to align the expectations of material suppliers and their medical device customers. But achieving such a complex objective will require the combined efforts of many stakeholders. “It takes dedicated work from a lot of people to bring about advances of the sort that MGMC is seeking,” she says. “It’s all about providing the most conducive environments to foster collaboration among experts, innovators, scientists, academicians, and best-in-class material producers.”
Anim holds a BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and earned an MSc in chemical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2021 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy in humanities from the United Graduate College and Seminary International (UGCSI) for her humanitarian work around the world.
Anim has published extensively in trade publications and professional journals, and has served as a reviewer for four polymer processing and medical device application textbooks. She is a frequent participant, presenter, panelist, and keynote speaker at trade shows such as Medical Design & Manufacturing and the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Medical Plastics MiniTec conferences. Anim is an advocate for STEM mentorship for minorities. She can be reached at janim@its.jnj.com.
M. Scott Taylor, PhD
ASTM Medical-Grade Cohort Leader
Scott Taylor is the chief technology officer at Poly-Med Inc. (Anderson, SC), where he specializes in materials selection and medical device design. He has worked on development teams for more than 20 marketed medical devices and is experienced in the creation of novel materials and processes, product design and development, advanced manufacturing services, application and development of intellectual property, and physical and chemical testing protocols.
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On behalf of MGMC, Taylor is serving as leader of the ASTM Medical-Grade Cohort. His 10-year involvement with ASTM includes the development and maintenance of standards from committees F04 (medical and surgical materials and devices) and F42 (additive manufacturing technologies). He has also served as chair of ASTM’s joint group on absorbable polymeric materials and test methods.
Taylor holds undergraduate degrees in physics and mechanical engineering from Furman University and Clemson University, respectively, and completed his doctorate in bioengineering at Clemson University. He has published numerous papers and conference abstracts, several book chapters, and is the listed inventor for more than 25 U.S. and international patents. In addition to his position at Poly-Med, he maintains an adjunct faculty appointment in bioengineering at Clemson University. Taylor can be reached at scott.taylor@poly-med.com.
Chris Johnson, BSc
Sustainability Cohort Leader
Chris Johnson is senior director of sustainability at Ascend Performance Materials (Houston), where he is responsible for driving the company’s efforts around environmental impact reductions and setting sustainability targets throughout the business. His involvement in sustainability, he says “was an opportunity for me to combine my values of conservation, care for others, and productivity with the needs of our company, our communities, and our customers.”
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Johnson is also serving as leader of MGMC’s Sustainability Cohort. Sustainability is important, he says, for setting strategy and taking actions that create wins for a company’s key stakeholders, including employees, communities, customers, and shareholders. “This includes a clean, safe work environment; minimizing the use of resources and our emissions to the environment; driving cost savings within our processes; and delivering products that can help enable our customers to provide solutions to consumers.”
For companies that are starting their own sustainability journeys, Johnson advises, “don’t try to tackle everything at once. Understand the critical-to-quality requirements of your stakeholders, then focus on delivering quick wins to build momentum and support.”
Prior to taking on his current role with Ascend, in 2020, Johnson held a variety of roles at the company and its predecessor over the past 27 years. He has extensive experience in manufacturing and capital projects, including stints in leadership roles for acrylonitrile production, turnaround and reliability, and capital planning. He graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Johnson can be reached at cbjohn1@ascendmaterials.com.