Bios
Robin R. Oder, Ph.D.
Dr. R. R. Oder is the founder and President of ETCi. He has over 30 years of experience in developing and commercializing innovative magnetic separation technology. Dr. Oder received the Ph.D. in physics from MIT and spent five years at MIT's Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory doing research in solid state physics and superconductivity. At the J.M. Huber Corporation in Macon, GA, he specified the design and oversaw the installation of the first commercial High Gradient Magnetic Separator (HGMS) for kaolin clay beneficiation. This process is now used world-wide in the kaolin industry. At the Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco he prepared conceptual engineering evaluations of HGMS in other industries. Dr. Oder joined the Gulf Science and Technology Company as Director of Coal Technology where he initiated a research and development program sponsored by the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company, a Gulf Oil subsidiary. Dr. Oder founded ETCi in 1982 to develop separation and fine grinding technologies. In 1997 he spun off Magnetic Applications Group, Inc., which has since been merged into ETCi.
Dr. Oder has been a Phoebe Apperson Hearst lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, a Case Western Reserve University Centennial Scholar, and an invited lecturer in Coal Technology at the University of Houston. He served as an elected officer of the Pittsburgh Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was a regional editor of the international journal, Coal Preparation. Dr. Oder is also a graduate of the Carnegie-Mellon University Entrepreneurial Management Program. Memberships have included the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Dr. Oder has authored over 150 publications and company reports in superconductivity, magnetism, cryogenics, metals and alloys, coal technology, water processing, paper technology, and clay mineralogy. He holds twenty-five patents for magnetic separation, coal gasification, electrostatic and magnetostatic coalescence, and recovery of Helium 3 from extraterrestrial resources .