Timothy Hebrink

Meet Tim Hebrink. Tim Hebrink, Senior Staff Scientist in 3M Corporate Research Lab, graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BS in Chemical Engineering, and has 39 years of polymer product development experience at 3M.

He has held several positions ranging from polymer processing and polymer synthesis to environmental engineering and polymer film application development.

Tim has developed new polymer compositions and polymer combinations enabling polymer films which improve the energy efficiency of buildings, vehicles, electronic displays, and cooling systems (refrigeration/HVAC/etc).

Tim has a unique ability to make connections between the synthetic polymer properties and physical processing aspects of film material technologies, creating film technologies that provide marketable differentiation of 3M products.

Tim is a co-inventor on 268 3M invention submissions, resulting in 77 issued patents and 82 pending patent applications. He has 11 external publications/presentations, 149 internal publications and has taught external courses on polymer film energy efficiency technologies at universities, international conferences, and participated on university advisory committees. Polymer films produced by his inventions have enabled significant 3M polymeric film sales resulting in 6 Golden Step awards (>$20million/year per product), 6 Circle of Technical Excellence awards, and over 30 megatons of CO2 emission reductions.

His passion for clean energy technologies extends to his home where he has generated electricity with photovoltaics and a small wind turbine, stored that renewable energy in batteries, heated domestic water with solar thermal panels, fueled a commuter car with recycled cooking oil for 15 years, and now commutes to work with an electric vehicle.