Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Printing Industries of America is proud to announce that Hadi Mahabadi, vice president and director, Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC), is the 2010 Robert F. Reed Technology Medal recipient. The Reed award recognizes an outstanding inventor, scientist, researcher, or engineer who has worked in the graphic communication industry for ten or more years.

Mahabadi joined Xerox in 1981 and has held a variety of managerial positions at XRCC. Mahabadi has been instrumental in creating an environment that increased innovation and successful commercialization of many breakthrough materials technologies at XRCC. Mahabadi led development and delivery to market on technologies in the field of digital laser printing and novel direct marking materials. As a result of his innovation and many contributions to the digital printing industry, he was selected as Number One in the list of 50 Most Influential Canadians in Graphic Communications (Print Action Magazine).

Two of Mahabadi's most important innovations include high–quality reactive extrusion–based toners and Emulsion Aggregation toners. High–quality reactive extrusion–based toners enabled high–speed digital printing (from about 60 to 200 pages/min) which led to the creation of on–demand and personalized printing. This resulted in the decentralization of some offset printing from major print shops to small or medium–sized print shops creating a large number of SEM jobs. His innovation in Emulsion Aggregation toners enabled a shift to color printing by making color printing, and printing in general, affordable. This innovation resulted in a series of color products from desktop to high–speed production color printers that are smaller, lower cost, greener, and capable of reducing the cost of color printing.

As a Canadian R&D leader, Mahabadi has participated in the development of Canada’s R&D strategy and has worked with Canadian organizations responsible for implementation of different aspects of Canada’s knowledge– based economy (MITACS, Let’s Talk Science, Shad valley, Ontario Centre of Excellence, National Research Council, National Science and Engineering Council, and Chemical Institute of Canada). As a result of his contribution to Canadian Science and Technology, Mahabadi was recognized by Canadian Immigrant magazine as one of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants of 2010. Mahabadi was selected as a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and serves as the Chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He authored more than 80 U.S. patents and published /presented more than 150 papers.

Hadi Mahabadi will be presented with an engraved and die struck bronze medal at the Annual Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) Conference, March 6–9, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.