Carol Handwerker
Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering 
Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering 
Purdue University

Carol has demonstrated superior and effective leadership in conducting enabling research for the electronics industry, particularly in areas related to materials science and sustainability. She has helped define and build strategies for key areas of research along the electronics manufacturing value chain and is a recognized expert in the field of electronics and sustainability, which has been acknowledged through her role as an expert advisor to the U.S. government and her success in building relevant funded research programs for our industry.

Carol acted as a leader and champion for INEMI’s early lead-free initiatives and, more recently, in the areas of sustainability and circularity in electronics manufacturing. Within INEMI, she is currently co-chair of the Sustainable Electronics topic for the INEMI Roadmap and served in that role for the previous three roadmap cycles. She is actively involved with the INEMI Sustainable Electronics Technology Integration Group (TIG), has served on INEMI’s Environmental Leadership Steering Committee, and has helped define and/or led many cross-industry projects related to reuse, recycling and recovery of value from end-of-life electronics. Carol has also been a long-time member of the INEMI Technical Committee and a co-chair of the Research Committee. 

INEMI Project Leadership

Carol’s leadership in two key INEMI initiatives exemplify her expertise and insights as well as a commitment to a collaborate approach to addressing critical industry issues:

INEMI lead-free projects (started in 1999)

• Collaborative, cross-industry effort identified SAC 305 as an initial replacement solder
• Enabled better understanding and faster development of materials, processes and assembly capabilities to ensure long-term reliability of lead-free assemblies
• Co-editor of the book, Lead-free Electronics: INEMI Projects Lead to Successful Manufacturing, published in 2007, that summarized key learnings from this work to help educate the industry during the transition to lead-free solders

INEMI Value Recovery from Used Electronics Project

• Engaged multiple stakeholders from the hard disk drive (HDD) value chain on a shared focus on circularity 
• Demonstrated the benefit of moving from the mindset of “reuse or shred” to “reuse and recover” for HDDs
• Conducted multiple demonstration projects to show that HDDs can have value, even after the end of first life
• Provided a comprehensive demonstration of the circular economy for the industry at that time

Contributions to the Electronics Manufacturing Ecosystem

• Carol is an excellent ambassador for INEMI, promoting the technical output of projects and the collaborative research consortium as a model for effective research. In addition, her strong technical contribution to the field of material science and electronics manufacturing has been recognized across the industry and technical communities. Leadership roles outside of INEMI include:
• Currently co-chairs the Education and Workforce Development Technical Working Group for the NIST-funded, SRC-led Roadmap for Microelectronic and Advanced Packaging Technologies (MAPT)
• Was principal investigator for the university-based Global Traineeship in Sustainable Electronics program 
  • Five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program 
  • Combined education and training of future engineers with research to develop new, more environmentally friendly and sustainable materials
• Invited to join the Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC), part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which provides guidance to the Secretary of Commerce on: 
  • Science and technology needs of the nation’s domestic microelectronics industry
  • Effectiveness of the national strategy in supporting U.S. leadership in microelectronics manufacturing
  • Research and development programs and other advanced microelectronics activities funded through CHIPS for America
  • Opportunities for new public-private partnerships