Prof. Shmuel Kenig

Prof. Shmuel Kenig founded the Department of Polymer Materials Engineering (which awards students for B.Sc. and M.Sc. in research), headed the Department of Chemical Engineering, served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and was recently elected vice president of Shenkar and director of the Research and Development Authority at the college.

Prof. Kenig holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with honors from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and a PhD in Chemical Engineering with honors from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. From 1985 to 1994, he served as a senior teaching fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion. He has been a tenured professor at Shenkar since 2000.

Prior to joining Shenkar, Prof. Kenig held various research and development positions. Between 1971 and 1974 he worked in the corporate research labs of Canadian Industries Ltd. in Canada; afterward, he worked for 18 years at the Armament Development Authority (Rafael – Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.). For his last six years at Rafael, he served as director of the Materials and Processes Department.

Upon leaving Rafael in 1992, Prof. Kenig established the Israel Plastics and Rubber Center (IPRC), which he led until 2014. In 1995, he founded the Department of Plastics Engineering at Shenkar, and headed the department until 2006.

Between 2006 and 2009 he headed the Department of Chemical Engineering. Prof. Kenig was appointed dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 2009 and has directed the Plastics Engineering M.Sc. program in the faculty till 2020..

Prof. Kenig has authored over 200 scientific publications, delivered 120 lectures at international conferences, and has 18 patents registered in his name.

Between 1984 and 1986, he served as president of the Israel Polymers and Plastics Society; in 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the society for his contribution to the plastics industry and to education in polymer engineering.

In 2016, he was the first Israeli ever to receive the "International Award" of the international Society of Plastics Engineers. In the same year, he was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the Israel Innovation Authority (the Office of the Chief Scientist) for his contribution to the advancement of the plastics and polymers industry in Israel. In 2019, he was the first Israeli to be awarded the "Innovation Award" by the Polymer Processing Society, an international organization, for his innovative scientific and engineering work.