I.	ASTM A. Dr. Gene Palermo has been a member of ASTM F 17 since 1982, and D 20 since 1999. He has been primarily involved in the following F 17 plastic pipe standards subcommittees: F17.10 Fittings F17.20 Joining F17.26 Olefins F17.38 ISO F17.40 Test Methods F17.60 Gas F17.61 Water F17.90 Executive F17.94 Terminology Dr. Palermo has served as chairman of F17.94 on Terminology and F17.38 on ISO. He is also a member of the F17.90 Executive Committee for F17. B. New plastic piping standards that Dr. Palermo developed or existing plastic piping standards that Dr. Palermo revised include: Added 80°C sustained pressure requirements to water pipe standards to assure slow crack growth resistance. Revised D 2513 quick burst requirement to be a ductile failure mode for polyethylene gas pipe instead of a minimum pressure because it is more meaningful. Developed a new annex in D 2513 for polyamide pipe and fittings Wrote a new standard for polyamide butt fusion fittings (F 1733) Added 50-year substantiation for polyethylene materials to D 2513 for gas pipe Included pressure design basis protocol in ASTM D 2837 Added polyethylene validation requirement to D 2837 Included a crosslinked polyethylene pipe material designation code in F 876 Wrote a new ASTM standard test method for rapid crack propagation based on the ISO standard (F 1583) Wrote a new ASTM standard test method for an 80°C notch pipe test based on the ISO method (F 1474) Introduced 80°C requirements for polyethylene heat fusion socket fittings (D 2683) and polyethylene butt fittings (D 3261) consistent with ISO TC 138 requirements Wrote a new ASTM test method to measure slow crack growth resistance of polyethylene materials used in corrugated pipe (F 2136) C. Dr. Palermo led an ASTM workshop to review differences and similarities between the ASTM plastic pipe pressure rating method – D 2837 and the ISO plastic pipe pressure rating method – ISO 9080. D. Dr. Palermo gave a “spotlight presentation” on ASTM F17.38 ISO standards activities during an ASTM Committee Week.
II.	ISO Dr. Palermo has been chairman of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO/TC 138 for plastic pipe materials for over 10 years. As chairman, Dr. Palermo represented the US plastic pipe industry at all ISO/TC 138 meetings. Dr. Palermo also formulated the US position on all standards ballots from ISO/TC 138. Within TC 138, Dr. Palermo is primarily active in SC 2 for water plastic pipe, SC 4 for gas plastic pipe and SC 5 for plastic pipe test methods. Dr. Palermo has provided ISO liaison reports at various ASTM F 17 subcommittee meetings, and also provided ASTM F 17 liaison reports at ISO/TC 138 meetings.
III.	HSB Dr. Palermo was chairman of the PPI Hydrostatic Stress Board (HSB) for seven years and has been a member of the HSB for 20 years. HSB is responsible for establishing the policy for pressure rating of plastic pipe materials in North America. While with PPI, Dr. Palermo continually updated both TR-2 and TR-4. TR-2 is a public listing of the various ingredients that are qualified for the PPI PVC generic formulation. TR-4 is a public listing of the pressure rating of plastic pipe materials obtained using ASTM D 2837. Dr. Palermo was also instrumental in listing the pressure rating of plastic piping materials obtained using the international pressure rating system (ISO 9080) in TR-4. These MRS (Minimum Required Strength) ratings were added to TR-4 in 1999. Under his leadership, the PDB (pressure design basis) for composite or multiplayer pipes and the SDB (Strength Design Basis) for molding materials were also added to TR-4.
IV.	AASHTO Dr. Palermo has also assisted with revision of AASHTO standards for polyethylene corrugated plastic pipe used in highway applications. His key contribution was development of an ASTM test method to measure the slow crack growth resistance of the polyethylene material used in corrugated plastic pipe. Through a PPI task group, round robin testing was conducted to establish the precision of the test method known as NCLS (notched constant ligament stress). AASHTO now references this NCLS test as a requirement in their M 294 corrugated pipe standard.