BSChE ’79
Senior Fellow, Amcor Global Core R&D
A chemical engineer who is a technical leader in creating high-barrier flexible packaging structures.
From end-to-end refrigeration to automated preparation and packaging systems, the modern food system is full of mind-blowing engineering feats that transport products from farm fields and processing plants into our cupboards quickly and safely. But perhaps the most impressive—and overlooked—innovations are the plastic bags and pouches used to package everything from fresh potatoes and broccoli to applesauce and snack chips.
Over the last 45 years as a researcher with the Neenah, Wisconsin-based Bemis Company (now Amcor), Kevin Nelson has helped engineer these plastic films, each with its own unique properties. Some are designed to keep out oxygen, moisture or light; some corral odors, others are gas-permeable, and some are extra strong to ensure they survive particularly sharp cracker corners.
“Most people probably aren’t aware of the complexity that characterizes a lot of these materials. Typical packaging film is probably on the same order of thickness as a human hair,” says Nelson. “Well, that plastic bag that wrapped the cheese you bought last week might be made of a dozen layers made of different materials in there to keep it safe and nutritious.”
Working in R&D, Nelson has developed many innovations (most are proprietary), leading to 27 U.S. patents and four President’s Awards for outstanding technical achievement from his company. He has also served on the advisory board of the college’s Advanced Materials Industrial Consortium and its Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics. That center is working with Nelson and Amcor on new ways to use chemical solvents to recycle some of the company’s multilayer plastic packaging.
Nelson says the packaging industry has gone through several major evolutions over the last two centuries, from sacks based on burlap and other fabrics in the 1800s to innovations in paper packaging in the early 20th century.
Plastics have dominated the last 50 years, and Nelson says he’s happy to have contributed—but he’s even more excited to move the industry into a new age. “We’ll have to look retrospectively to see what the big innovation is, but I think it will have a lot to do with enhancing sustainability and the end-of-life of the things we make,” he says.
How did your engineering education enable your success?
Being trained as a chemical engineer, you learn to problem solve and have a great theoretical base—things like thermodynamics and mass transfer just become second nature—and you’re one step closer to solving a problem because of that intuition. I didn’t get trained to be ready to succeed in the packaging industry specifically, but my chemical engineering fundamentals are broadly applicable in so many industries. I always say I understand my academic career a whole lot better now that I’ve had industrial experience. I still get those, “Oh, that’s why they taught us that,” realizations.
What’s your advice for future engineering students?
University life is really different from anything else that you will experience; it’s a very intense time. The challenge of interacting with other folks and all the different cultures brought together by a global Big 10 university like UW-Madison is a great opportunity and generates tolerance and understanding of other cultures. Not everyone gets to do that.
Which do you prefer?
Camp Randall, the Kohl Center or the Field House?
When I was in school, the football and basketball teams were not so good, but the hockey team, which played at the Dane County Coliseum, was great. Getting tickets was crazy-hard, but the environment at the Coliseum was pretty special.
Originally posted by University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 3rd, 2025
Written by: Jason Daley
