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ABOUT US
> HISTORY
PRIS HISTORY
On February 26th, 1968, the official opening of the Rubber and Plastics
Division of the Singapore Polytechnic was performed by Mr Low Guan
Onn, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors and Technical Director
of Jurong Shipyards. Dr FH Cotton, a Fellow of the (UK) Institution
of the Rubber Industry (IRI), who had been invited to Singapore specifically
to set up the new Division, siezed the opportunity of circulating
those attending the opening ceremony, an invitation to join the IRI
and to form a local section.
A petition to this effect was accepted by the IRI Council in London,
and in 1968, the Singapore Section was established, with Mr JCJ
Thwaites as its first Secretary. Up to 1973 the Section flourished
and candidates had entered each year for the Licentiate examinations,
but, for whatever reasons, the UK Council was eventually notified
by a letter dated September 29th 1975, that the Section had been
dissolved and the Registrar of Societies had gazetted this dissolution.
At the time of formation of the Plastics and Rubber Institute from
the amalgamation of the IRI and the Plastics Institute (PI) on the
20th February 1975, the IRI had 238 members in Singapore and the
PI had 56 - one would have considered this a solid base for progress;
not dissolution.
In 1976, Mr George Chew, a former IRI Section Chairman, together
with Dr Philip Adams, who had recently arrived in Singapore, took
steps to contact the old members with a view to forming a new PRI
Section. Only 9 members responded favourably and after many protem
committee meetings the PRI Section was finally registered with the
Registrar of Companies (as a branch of a UK company) in January
1979 and the first AGM was held in May under the Chairmanship of
Mr Kam Foon Wing with Dr Adams as Honorary Secretary.
In 1983, the Section was re-registered as a Society with the Registrar
of Societies and in 1996 the Plastics and Rubber Institute, Singapore,
(PRIS) was again upgraded to an independent national body after
the amalgamation of the PRI (UK) into the new Institute of Materials.
The Plastics and Rubber Institute (Singapore) is renamed
The Plastics and Rubber Institute of Singapore in 2001 to
reflect the Institution's statue in Singapore.
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