Diana Bendz

Diana J. Knight Bendz is an American polymer scientist and environmental and industrial engineer who has promoted environmentally-conscious manufacturing processes in her work at IBM, and promoted the participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Education and career

Bendz earned a bachelor's degree in 1968, jointly from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and from Syracuse University. She was the first woman to graduate from the SUNY ESF program in polymer chemistry.[1]

She came to work for IBM as an electronics packaging engineer,[2] and continued there for 39 years,[1] finishing her career as senior location executive for IBM's research facility in Endicott, New York.[2] As director of environmentally conscious products for IBM, she led the incorporation of recycled materials into IBM personal computers;[3] she also worked on a program to recycle old computers, led an IBM taskforce on environmental leadership, and pushed IBM to donate land to environmental organizations and to participate in eco-industrial parks.[1] She also founded the IEEE Technical Committee on Electronics and the Environment,[2] the IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment,[4] and the Electronics Recycling Summit.[5]

While still at IBM, Bendz worked with Joan L. Mitchell and others in an IBM program aimed at promoting engineering to middle school girls.[6] After retiring, she founded and ran Girls Balance the Equation, a nonprofit organization with similar goals.[1]

Recognition

In 1984, the IEEE gave Bendz their Centennial Key-to-the-Future Award.[7] She is also a recipient of the IEEE Third Millenium Medal, and of the Environmental Progress Individual Award of the Environmental Issues Council of the Electronic Industries Association. Bendz was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 1997, "for leadership and contributions to electronics manufacturing and to environmental impact and policy".[8]

In 2015, SUNY ESF gave her their Graduates of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award.[1]

References
  1. "2015 Graduates of Distinction Citations" (PDF), SUNY ESF Alumni News, p. 3, Winter 2016
  2. Bourg, Dominique; Erkman, Suren, eds. (2017), "Biographies", Perspectives on Industrial Ecology, Routledge, p. 368, ISBN 9781351282062
  3. IBM Launches World's First Desktop PC with 100% Recycled Plastic Resin, IBM, 1 March 1999
  4. Goldberg, Lee H. (5 October 2002), "Electronics industry tends to environmental issues", EE Times
  5. "Computer Recyclers to Meet", Recycling Today, 15 February 2002
  6. Neff, Todd (1 July 2002), "IBM encourages middle school girls to study engineering", Boston Business Journal
  7. Donaldson, George H. (January 1985), "CHMT President's Message", IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 6, doi:10.1109/MCD.1985.6311919
  8. IEEE Fellows directory, IEEE, retrieved 2021-06-10
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