STF Technologies LLC develops and provides advanced materials and personal protective equipment for occupations that demand superior protection combined with the highest level of flexibility and comfort.
STF Technologies was founded in 2013 by Dr. Richard Dombrowski and Dr. Norman Wagner. We are located in the Delaware Industrial Park.
Dr. Richard D. Dombrowski
Prior to founding STF Technologies, Dr. Dombrowski was an associate research scientist in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware. During this time he worked with multiple industrial sponsors to develop and patent advanced protective materials and products. Projects included advanced stab-resistant materials for body armor, needle-resistant textiles for medical gloves, impact protective materials for helmets and padding, and new space suit materials with improved protection against hypervelocity impacts by micrometeoroids and orbital debris. As an instructor and co-instructor at the University of Delaware he incorporated principles of product engineering into classroom lectures and senior design projects. He is currently a member of ASTM and AIChE.
Dr. Dombrowski earned his Bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2003. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2007 with a focus on crystallization and particle technology.
Dr. Norman J. Wagner
In addition to his role as co-founder of STF Technologies, Dr. Wagner is the Robert L. Pigford Chaired Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. He leads an active research group in the fields of rheology, complex fluids, polymers, applied statistical mechanics, nanotechnology and particle technology. His research focus areas include the effects of applied flow on the microstructure and material properties of colloidal suspensions, polymers, self-assembled surfactant solutions, and combinations thereof. He was awarded the Siple Award in 2002 by the US Army for his development of shear thickening fluids for novel energy absorbing materials. This collaborative research with the Army Research Lab is a major research and development effort toward creating novel, protective materials (www.ccm.udel.edu/STF/).
Dr. Wagner earned his Bachelors degree from Carnegie Mellon and Doctorate from Princeton University, was an NSF/NATO Postdoctoral Fellow in Germany, and a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Lab prior to joining the University of Delaware in 1991. He was named a Senior Fulbright Scholar (Konstanz, Germany) and served as a guest Professor at the ETH, Zurich (1997) and the University of Rome (2004). Prof. Wagner has authored or coauthored over 180 scientific publications and patents and is on the editorial boards of five international journals. He has co-authored a textbook (2008) on Mass and Heat Transfer for the Chemical Engineering series of Cambridge University Press, as well as Colloidal Suspension Rheology (2011), also Cambridge University Press. More about Professor Wagner and his research can be found at www.che.udel.edu/wagner.