Eric Daniels began his career in the biological sciences at Muhlenberg College and then continued his studies at Lehigh University where he initially worked as a research assistant on a joint project with the Biotechnology group in Chemical Engineering and with the Emulsion Polymers Institute (EPI) where he investigated the interaction of proteins with latex polymer particles, thus combining his interest in biology and polymers. His interests in the synthesis, characterization, structure, and material properties of latex polymers resulted in the attainment of his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering (Ph.D. dissertation: "The Development of Multistage Composite Latexes which Simulate the Properties of Thermoplastic Elastomers"; Lehigh University, 1987) at Lehigh University. His dissertation advisors were Professor Mohamed S. El-Aasser and Professor John Vanderhoff, both world-renowned polymer colloid scientists.
After graduating from Lehigh with his Ph.D., he was offered a research scientist position in the world-class Emulsion Polymers Institute at Lehigh University under the guidance of Professor El-Aasser, where he remained for may years. His career path then led to several promotions to Senior Research Scientist, and then as Principal Research Scientist. He then became the Executive Director of the Institute in 2002. He also was awarded the Tradition of Excellence Award, Lehigh University, 2004 and the OMNOVA Solutions Foundation Signature University Award presented for Outstanding Research in Polymer Science and Engineering. He then became an Adjunct Professor at Leigh in Chemical Engineering and then in Materials Science and Engineering (in the Polymer Science and Engineering program) primarily teaching a number of polymer courses. In August 2017, he left the EPI when he was appointed as a Professor of Practice in Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh where he currently remains, focusing on teaching and developing a number of new polymer courses geared towards both undergraduate and graduate students, especially distance education graduate students from the US and overseas.
Dr. Daniels has published over 82 publications, has 4 patents, and was the co-editor of 2 books. He was a PI and/or a Co-OI in over 38 funded research programs. He gave more than 40 Technical Presentations at International and National Conferences, Regional conferences and short courses and at various industrial locations and was a speaker at the Advances in Emulsion Polymers Short courses at Lehigh for many years (and in Davos, Switzerland twice as well). He has served on 27 Ph.D. dissertation committees of graduate students and acted as a co-advisor/mentor for many of these students. He also co-advised 6 M.S. students and has also acted as a co-advisor to a number of visiting scientists, visiting undergraduate students and post-doctoral research associates on a number of contract research programs and company-sponsored visits. He also acted as an external reviewer for a number of polymer journals. He has also consulted at over 10 companies for various lengths of time. He has also been a technical editor for a number of internal and external technical reports.
