The ACA has announced that Dr. Jamil Baghdachi, Professor of Polymers and Coatings at Eastern Michigan University, will present the 2017 Mattiello Memorial Lecture. The presentation will be part of the association’s CoatingsTech Conference, to be held March 20-22, 2017, at the Westin Cleveland Downtown in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Baghdachi’s lecture, entitled “Smart and Functional Polymers and Coatings,” will be offered on Tuesday, March 21.

The CoatingsTech Conference is the coatings industry’s leading technical event, and will embrace the theme, “Meeting the Sustainability Challenges of Today and Tomorrow.”

Mattiello Lecture Award

The Joseph J. Mattiello Lecturer is selected by ACA each year. The prestigious award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to science, technology, and/or engineering related to the coatings industry. Mattiello, in whose memory the award is given, did much to expand the application of science in the decorative and protective coatings field. Lecturers are chosen from nominations based on standards of technical accomplishment, service to the coatings industry, and leadership.

Industry Background

Dr. Baghdachi has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of polymers, coatings, adhesives, paints, and composites. He has consulted for national and international firms and organizations, as well as the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard on polymeric materials, coatings, paints, corrosion control, applications, processes, and product durability.

Dr. Baghdachi serves on the editorial board of ACA’s Journal of Coatings Technology and Research. In 1997 he authored the FSCT’s “Adhesion Aspects of Polymeric Coatings” monograph, as part of the Series on Coatings Technology. That same year he became a professor of Polymer and Coatings at Eastern Michigan University. He has also worked in industry, as president of Innovative Technology Systems Corporation since 1990. Dr. Baghdachi has worked in a technical and supervisory capacity at ARCO Chemical, DuPont, and BASF Corporation’s Coatings and Colorants Division.

Dr. Baghdachi has 38 patents, is author or co-author of five technical books and 122 journal publications. A recognized speaker, he has keynoted many technical national and international conferences. Dr. Baghdachi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Chemical Society (ACS) Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings in 2015, ACS Fellow in 2014, and ACA’s Industry Excellence Award in 2012 for his technical contributions and leadership of ACA’s Science & Technology Education Subcommittee.

He is an active member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, past chair of the ACS Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Division, and organizer and general chair of the Smart Coatings Conference.

Dr. Baghdachi received his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Middle Tennessee State University in 1975 and 1978, respectively; he received his Ph.D. from The University of Mississippi, Oxford, in 1982.

CoatingsTech Conference

In addition to the prestigious Mattiello Memorial Lecture, the CoatingsTech Conference will include the inaugural CoatingsTech Award, the Student Presenter and Poster Awards. The technical program will feature a multi-track forum for all professionals in the coatings industry. Leading the conference will be a series of Short Courses & Open Forums, to be offered on the morning of Monday, March 20. The conference will conclude with a full-day special session exploring the coatings industry’s role in meeting regulatory and sustainability challenges that support end users.

For more information on the 2017 CoatingsTech Conference and Short Courses & Open Forums, visit paint.org/2017-ctc/, or contact Steve Sides at ssides@paint.org. For details on sponsorship opportunities, contact Dorothy Brawner at dbrawner@paint.org.